Eternity to Heal
by MagicalGirl85
Summary: The afterlife. What does that mean to you? Eponine, Enjolras and all the others who died at the Barricade are trying to find out. Some may just find the right kind of solace in each other.
1. Bereft of Life

Part 1: Chapter 1: Bereft of Life

_And rain will make the flowers… _  
I open my eyes to a room like any other, but there's something nagging about it, something familiar. Of course! It's my room as a child! When my parents still owned that Inn, when they still loved me and before I ever met Marius. So this is where I'm to spend eternity. I get up out of the bed and try to remember what had transpired moments before. I was at the Barricade, with Marius. I saw a gun pointed at him and jumped in its path. I took a bullet for a boy I would never have. He held me as I died, but I died even so. How many more have and will die for this revolution?

I walk to the door of my room and turn the knob to explore. Instead of the rest of the Inn, for we had lived above it, there looks to be a never ending hallway full of doors. None of the doors are marked, but they are in all different shapes, sizes and styles. I find one almost identical to mine, except a bit more worn, and open it cautiously. Looking inside, I see the room I had just left, but several years later. There's a small cot in the corner now, which a small boy is sitting on.

"Ponnie!" He yells excitedly when he sees me

"Vroche? What are you doing here?!" I say, panicked, Gavroche can't have died! No, not my little brother! His eternity seems to be the room he shared with me, before our mother sold him, along with our two younger brothers, to Magnon.

"Dunno, why are you here?"

"Gavroche, if you're here it means you're…" I trail off, not wanted to break his joy

"Means I'm what?"

"It means you're dead" I whisper, not wanting to meet his eyes

"I'm – I'm dead?" he looks at me with his round little boy eyes

"Yes Vroche" I open my arms for him to curl up in my lap.

I spend much time with Gavroche after that day. One night, after I put him to sleep, I decide to explore more of the hallway. I walk and walk down the hallway, sometimes peering into other rooms, never meeting anyone else I know from my life. It seems finding Gavroche was just dumb luck. After what seems like ages, I reach a blindingly white door at the end of the _seemingly_ endless hallway. I open the door to a white room, with what appears to be a pool _in_ the wall. Hesitantly, I approach the pool. When I put my finger out to touch it a voice sounds behind me.

"No touchy sweetheart" I spin around in surprise and see a man standing behind a desk

"Why? Who are you?" I narrow my eyes at this divine-looking man. He's pale and dressed all in white. Even the irises of his eyes are a milky color!

"I'm called many things, it depends on who you ask"

"Well I'm asking you" His pale lips curl into a smirk

"I _like_ you; most people around here are quite a bore. _I'm dead! No I can't be! Send me back to my family! Can I visit my loved ones? _You can call me Rick" That seems a rather ordinary name for such a… strange being.

"Is Rick short for something_?_"

"Rickward" His face twists as if he had eaten a lemon, I chuckle "Awful isn't it? Your name?"

"Quite, my name is Éponine Thérnadier" I curtsy to him a bit mockingly

"Are you from France then, _Mademoiselle_?"

"_Oui, Monsieur_"

"_Ravi de vous rencontrer, Mademoiselle_" He bows to me with just as much comic flare

"And you, _Monsieur_. What is this place?" Rick walks gracefully over to me

"The base of the dead, you could say. That pool lets me see into the world of the living"

"Really? That's fantastic! Could I-" Rick cuts me off savagely

"No! The dead are not permitted to look into it!"

"Why ever not! I must see which of my friends survived the Barricades!" I fight to get through his lean arms. He pushes me back easily

"the Barricades, _Mademoiselle?_"

"The French Revolution, _Monsieur_! Did we lose? Oh God, did we lose? I don't even know! I died before the end! Which of my friends have died? Which of them survived?" I've worked myself into a flurry. Rick tries to calm me, but I won't have any of it. Oh, if Marius died…

"Fine! Fine, Éponine, you can look, but quickly!" I beam at him and touch the pool. It's cool, but doesn't feel wet, not like water. Many images flash before my eyelids, images of what had transpired after I died. Gavroche's death, Courfeyrac's death, Combeferre's death, even Enjolras has died! All of the students, everyone at the Barricades were obliterated, we lost… we lost the fight. But Marius, where is my beloved Marius?! I see, is that Cosette's adopted papa? He is carrying my Marius through the _sewers_? Marius appears to be injured; Cosette's papa is taking him to his grandfather's. Marius is healing, as he is only injured, and is grief-stricken by all of our deaths. I pull out of the pool when I see Cosette enter.

"So much time has passed there" I say weakly, still much in shock

"Time here is different than there. There isn't really any night and day."

"But I put Gavroche to bed when the sun goes down…"

"Ah, you only think the sun goes down. Here, everything is malleable. You can change anything to your liking. When you first arrive, your subconscious picks the place you feel most content to spend eternity, usually. Sometimes, people feel the need to reward or punish themselves and act accordingly. If the person doesn't have any place from their life, I fabricate a place for them. You can change anything with a simple thought. The afterlife is what you want it to be, Éponine."

"Am I permitted to meet with other dead folk?"

"You already do, I'm not stopping you. Finding your other friends will be difficult though, unless you know what their eternity is." He says with a sly smile

"But you must know! Could you help me? Please, _Monsieur_" I beg pitifully

"Normally, I'd say no, but you intrigue me, Éponine Thérnadier" He takes my hand gently; his hand is dry, but smooth, not soft like Marius were. He touches the pool and shows me the appearance of Enjolras's door.

"That is all I'll show you, _Mademoiselle_, you two can search for the others. I'll try not to make it too difficult." He winks at me and in a flash of bright light I'm back in my room.


	2. Reunions Galore

Chapter 2: Reunions Galore

The gunshots are still ringing in my ears when I open my eyes once more. Am I alive? No, I don't feel alive, but the pain I expect from the many gunshots I endured is nonexistent. I'm sitting under an oak tree, which is on one side of a beautiful garden. I would know this place anywhere! It is my mother's, before she died. She was the only one in my family who respected my political views. We would sit here in the garden and just talk. After she died, my father stopped sending me money to pay for the university; my twin sisters stopped visiting me. Is this my eternity? What led to me being here? The memories come flooding back over me; all the deaths, the other Barricades falling, the people abandoning us, being overrun, and losing the fight. We lost the revolution _we_ started.

I'm reading when a door I hadn't noticed before opens. Someone comes in hesitantly, guessing by the feminine figure, it's a girl. I vaguely recognize her, though she's mostly in the shadows.

"_Monsieur _Enjolras! Oh thank God! Rick wasn't lying!" She rushes towards me and into the light

"_Mademoiselle _Éponine?" What is she doing here? I remember seeing her die; she was one of the first to die for the Barricade. That means that I'm dead… yes that makes sense.

"_Oui, Monsieur_" A small boy stands behind her

"Is – is that Gavroche?" The boy comes into the light as well

"'Ello Enjolras" He shows me his tricolor pin proudly, does he know we lost?

"What are you two doing here?"

"We came to visit! Seeing a familiar face here is reassuring" Éponine gushes, clearly she's been with only Gavroche for company for far too long.

"Where exactly _is here_?" Éponine wrings her hands and looks at Gavroche, who merely shrugs.

"Rick simply calls it 'the afterlife'" She keeps mentioning this Rick

"Who is Rick?"

"He is, you could say, the being in charge of all of the dead" She looks away from me

"The being in charge? You call God Rick?" This girl _is_ quite strange

"He's not God, not really. He's closer to the Greek deity… oh what is his name?" She puts her hands to her head and stomps her foot, trying to remember.

"Hades?" I offer up, amused, she nods, a wide smile spreading across her tan face

"That's the one! Thanks Enjolras!" She sits beside me under the oak tree, while Gavroche climbs up into it. She shouts at him to be careful, why, I cannot fathom, can you become injured when you're already dead? I look at this girl, who I barely knew in my life. Her hair is groomed and her clothes are clean, more than one could say during her life, at least when I knew her. She didn't choose anything overly fancy, but something nicer than she would've worn during her lifetime. We talk about many things, among them, her experience so far in this place, her childhood and mine. Neither of us had the best childhood. Hers was spoiled until her early preteens, but she regrets being so horrid to others. Mine was typical of a higher class boy, that's to say, not very interesting, so I got into trouble quite a lot.

*Several Weeks Later*

I wish I'd spent more time with Enjolras when we were alive, as he is quite interesting. Together, we've found Courfeyrac and Granataire. The latter of the two was overjoyed to see Enjolras. Courfeyrac was happy, of course, but he was closer to Marius. Courfeyrac had already found Combeferre when we found him. _Les Amis de l'ABC_ is almost reunited! I just wish Rick would let me touch the pool again! I want to see what's going on in the world of the living!

"'Ponine! Are you even listening to me?" I shake my head to clear my thoughts; Enjolras takes this as a no. "Listen now then" He's been going on about the corruption of the French law system for ages. I stick my tongue out at Courfeyrac, who snorts into his tea. We don't really need to eat, drink, or breathe even, but we do it all out of habit and for comfort.

Rick enters Enjolras's room, for that is the room we were all staying in.

"Éponine! I have someone I'm sure you'd like to meet"

"Is this the fabled 'Rick'" Enjolras is irritated at being interrupted again

"Hello, _Messieurs_, _il est agréable de vous rencontrer tous_" He bows to all the _Les Amis_ present

"Who do you have for me, Rick?" I ask eagerly, he normally makes me find people on my own. This must be a special case. "Oh God, it's not Marius, is it?"

"_Non_, it is someone who has been without his sister for long enough" I'm speechless at this, which of my two little brothers has he found, Pascal or Laurent?! A tiny boy of five comes out from behind Rick; he has sandy hair, like Gavroche and our mother, but it's curly, like our father's.

"Pascal! Oh, you probably don't remember me, you're biggest sister?"

"Sister? I only ever had a brother, Laurent. Gavroche, is that you?" He looks behind me to Gavroche who just jumped out of the tree. Why would he know Gavroche and not me?

"Pascal, my mome?" Are these the two boys Gavroche told me that he had taken in for a bit? I laugh when I think that he accidently took in his own brothers. "What's 'appened to you?"

"I was so hungry, all the time after we left you. I went to sleep one night and woke under the elephant. Then this man" he points to Rick "found me and brought me here, Vroche where's Laurent? Where are we? Who is that girl and why does she say she's my sister?"

"He died of starvation? That's horrible, it's for people like him we were fighting for, Ponnie" Enjolras says to me in an undertone. Courfeyrac, Granataire and Combeferre have stayed silent throughout this whole ordeal. Pascal huddles in Gavroche's arms as he answers only two of his queries.

"That's Éponine, Pascal, she _is_ our older sister"

"Ours? Does that mean you're my bruver?" he looks up at Gavroche with hopeful eyes

"Yes Pascal, and Laurent's, plus we have one more sister, her name is Azelma" He murmurs into Pascal's dirty hair. He clearly doesn't understand this place, or he'd have cleaned his hair and gotten some nicer clothes, but how could he? He's five!

"'Ponine, you're my sister?" Pascal turns to me; I nod, smile and open my arms to embrace my brother.

"I haven't seen you since you were a teeny babe!" I giggle

"Before mummy sold me and Laurent to Magnon and put Vroche on the streets?"

"Yes dear" I murmur, hating the memory; I was only twelve, Azelma was ten, we didn't know how to defy my mother. Gavroche was eight when she put him on the streets. Pascal wasn't even one year old when she sold him and Laurent, who was five, to Magnon. Magnon's two sons died in an epidemic, as she was a friend of my parents and they didn't want Pascal or Laurent, they sold them to her to replace her lost sons. I'm lost deep in my memories when Enjolras whispers in my ear.

"They're asleep" I look down at the two boys in my lap, both fast asleep. The others have left, now it's just Enjolras, the boys and I. I smile down at them.

"I'm so glad to have found them! In life and death, we are finally reunited, though we are still missing Laurent and Azelma" I say quietly, more to myself than to Enjolras.

"A family reunited is always a good thing"

"Let's put them in Vroche's room" Enjolras picks up Gavroche, while I get Pascal and we both head to Gavroche's small room and place them, curled up together, in my bed.


	3. Love Makes You Care Too Much

**I've heard Eponine's two little brothers referred to as many things, but most commonly Peter and Jacques, I chose different names. Peter = Laurent Jacques = Pascal, I believe, Pascal is the younger of the two. Just so you know**

* * *

Chapter 3: Love Makes You Care Too Much

"How are the boys settling in?" Rick asks me when I enter into the White Room (what I have gone to calling the room with the pool, where I first met Rick).

"Pascal is no longer scared of the older boys"

"Well that's good, how are the _Les Amis_?" He chuckles

"They are doing pretty well. Granataire's eternity is the wine cellar in _Le Café Musain_, so he is drunken most of the time. Combeferre and Courfeyrac spend a lot of time getting him out of trouble."

"Here?" Rick muses

"Yes, he stumbles into other eternities, disturbing the people there" I giggle remembering the stiff, wealthy old woman he interrupted once.

"How about Enjolras?" Rick says this with a sly smile

"Oh Enjolras is great! I mean I don't really know how he feels, as he's quite hard to read. But I love talking to him about, well, just about everything! He's so intelligent!" Rick smile spreads and becomes much wider as I continue to praise Enjolras.

Meanwhile

"You seem to be spending plenty of time with Éponine these days." Courfeyrac says to me

"It's not as if there are many alternates" I comment mildly

"_Vous plaisantez_? There are millions of people here! Everyone who ever died is here!" Granataire coughs into his pitcher of some form of alcohol.

"None that we know" I counter

"Plenty! We just haven't found 'em yet!" Granataire waves his arms in the air in a stupor

"Papa!" Pascal giggles manically from the other side of the garden, Gavroche is chasing him "Help me!" he squeals to me, I sigh. Why doesn't Éponine tell him I'm not really his father?

"Here I come!" I yell, in a silly voice, just to make the boys laugh "Rawwrrr" I tackle Gavroche, saving Pascal, who runs into my arms.

"You're the monster now, Pascal!" Gavroche yells, once I let him go. Pascal squeals and starts to chase the much faster Gavroche. I go and sit by Courfeyrac, Granataire and Combeferre again.

"I didn't know you were a kid person, Antoine" I hate it when they use my first name.

"I'm not" I say through gritted teeth "but Éponine would skin me alive if she saw me mistreating her boys"

"I don't see Éponine here" Combeferre comments, looking around, as if to search for her

"They'd tell her" I protest

"Admit it, you like them" Courfeyrac prods, after a while I relent reluctantly

"They are fine boys" I say stiffly

"Ha, there, that wasn't so hard, now was it?" I want to strangle them both

"Now all he needs to do is admit his love for Éponine and he's no longer in denial" Combeferre says in a still very audible undertone to Courfeyrac

"I can hear you, _salaud_ and I don't love her! Not like that anyway, we're just friends!"

"Of course you don't" Courfeyrac soothes me mockingly

Back in the White Room

"Why the hell not?!" I yell at Rick, who once again has refused my request to touch the pool.

"It's forbidden! And unseemly that I'd even let you in the first place!" He protests, throwing his hands in the air. His milky eyes blaze with a strange sort of fire.

"Who will know? Please Rick!" I plead my friend

"He would know" He answers darkly

"You wouldn't understand! You've never been in love!"

"Love, you mortals talk so highly of it, yet it causes so much despair" He sounds curious, as if not understanding the concept

"Love makes you care and caring makes you… it makes you _care_ what happens! Instead of being impassive about every soul!" I accuse him viciously

"Éponine" He says warningly

"Please Rick! I need to know what my Marius is doing!" I beg him, the fire in his eyes quiets and is replaced by a sad bemusement.

"_Your _Marius, quite" What is that supposed to mean?!

"Please" He sighs heavily, putting his hands up in surrender

"Fine, fine" I bounce up and down in excitement and hug him hastily.

"Thank you, _Monsieur!_ You won't be sorry!" I promise him

"I already am" He mutters to himself, though I barely hear him as I approach the pool. Touching it, I feel the familiar, yet still odd, sensation. Is he at a celebration? A wedding it looks like, which of our friends are getting married? Oh no, he's not attending a wedding, it's _his_ wedding. His wedding to Cosette. I see her enter, gracefully and dressed beautifully in white. They kiss to seal themselves to the other. I pull out of this nightmare and hurry out of the White Room, down the hallway and into my own room. I collapse onto my bed, already in a fit of tears.

I'm sniveling and sobbing when someone opens my door.

"Go away" I shout, the door closes immediately, I hear a small boy cry for Enjolras outside it. "_Papa! Maman is crying in there!"_ I barely pay attention to Pascal's wrong-headed thinking and bury my face deeper into my hands. Hurried footsteps sound and stop outside my door. When it opens again, it's Enjolras who is behind it.

"'Ponine? Are you alright?" He asks, clearly in shock by my pathetic position

"What the hell kind of question is that?" I remark, when I compose myself a bit "I thought you were the smart one, Enjolras" He tries to sit near me, but I scoot to the far corner of my bed and curl up there. He sighs audibly and moves closer to me.

"Go away, Enjolras, I don't need any of your comments right now" I spit

"Hey, I'm not the one who did this to you! I just want to help, tell me what's wrong, Ponine" he rubs my back soothingly

"Oh Enjolras" I turn quickly and hug my friend tightly, he's surprised by my sudden movement "I was such a fool, thinking maybe he could love me. Maybe he would mourn me and forget about that petty Cosette!" He nods, finally understanding what this is about

"'Ponine, you know it couldn't have happened, you're dead, and he's very much alive and, well, very much in love with Cosette" I sob pitifully into his shirt

"I know, oh God I know, but I just wished… I just wished that maybe…" I don't finish, knowing that what I had wished was moronic

"You still have me" I look up into his gently smiling face

"I do still have you, don't I?" His blue eyes, so similar to the color of Marius's, yet so different, look upon me with affection. His are more intelligent, harsher, but also more compassionate, plus he looks on me with more caring than Marius ever did.


	4. Anguish and Confusion

Chapter 4: Anguish and Confusion

"I didn't know her love for him ran so deep. She won't leave her room, she doesn't eat or sleep and she will barely take any company!" I say, exasperated, to Combeferre, who rolls his eyes, as Éponine is the only thing I've talked about for days. Éponine has fallen into the dark clutches of her sadness, after finding out that Marius has married his beloved Cosette.

"Papa?" Little Pascal tugs on the bottom of my coat, I pick him up so we can be at eyelevel

"Yes Pascal?" He looks at me with his round, dark eyes, eyes so similar to those of his sister. I see Courfeyrac mouth "_Papa?"_ to Combeferre; I give them both a withering glance

"What's wrong with Mama? Why won't she leave her room? I haven't seen her in three days!"

"Mama's friend, who's still on Earth, got married"

"What's married mean?" Pascal questions me with his little face twisted in confusion

"It's when a man and a woman who really love each other, bond themselves to the other for the rest of their lives" I try to explain with the least confusing words

"Are you and Mama married?" He asks innocently, I see both my friends snort into their drinks and start to laugh hysterically

"No Pascal" I splutter

"Maybe that's why she's so sad" Pascal says, wiggling his feet to let me know he wants me to put him down. I put him down in a rather stunned state and stand there, watching him and Gavroche chase each other around the garden.

"_Mon Ami_, even the little boy thinks you are together!" Courfeyrac chuckles

"_Se taire_, right now, Éponine is crying over Marius, we're not together"

"But, you feel something for her, don't you? I can tell, even Granataire, when he's drunk, can tell! You, at the very least, feel affectionate towards her." Combeferre prods me, wanting me to admit to it. I know they are right, I have warmed up to her in the past couple months or so.

* * *

I've taken to wandering the hallway. As Éponine isn't very good company at the moment and _Les Amis_ will only talk about my love for her. I do worry about her, though. I've talked to many interesting people, one of which could be a potential teacher for Gavroche and Pascal. One door catches my eye; it is white and cushioned, and studded with gold. I turn the gilded knob carefully. Inside I see a room I can only describe as white. Everything is white, the large bed, the bureau, the curtains, the rug, everything. A blonde woman sits on the window seat, sewing.

"Hello sir, what brings you here?" She wonders quietly, not surprised at all by my wanderings

"I was just looking around, what is your name, _Mademoiselle_?" She stands and I can see that she's quite pretty. Her blonder hair is very long and luscious, her eyes are sky blue and she has a nice… figure.

"I was called Serenity, and I died by drowning in 1814 in my home town of Leicester" She says without changing her voice or facial expressions. "Are you from France?"

"_Oui_, my name is Enjolras and I died in 1832" I answer cautiously

"How did you die?" Serenity asks in her dream-like voice

"Several shots to the chest" She nods as a response, I back out of the room slowly

"No don't leave, I was enjoying our conversation" Her voice is so unexpressive it's starting to freak me out a bit. Serenity grabs my wrist, and I notice that her eyes have filled in completely black "Love me!" Her voice is strangely garbled as she pulls me closer. She sticks her blackish tongue in my mouth and pushes me down onto the bed.

"Serenity" I choke "_Descendre!"_ I push her well filled out frame off of me and hastily rush out the door, slamming it closed as I do so. I run down the hallway, trying to catch my breath. I hear her door open behind me and her light footsteps coming out.

"Oh my dear sir, I didn't mean to! I don't know what came over me! I've been so alone all these years, I didn't know how to react!" Serenity sounds genuinely distressed, which calms me a bit. Her eyes are blue again and her tongue is pink.

"_Mon ami_, is that you I hear out here?" Courfeyrac calls from inside his own room.

"_Oui_" Serenity's eyes widen and she gasps

"You know people here?! I didn't even know there was a door in my room until you walked through it!" She gushes, clinging to my arm rather irritatingly

"We all died near the same time, for the same cause" I respond stiffly

"Who's that with you? It's not Éponine, is it? Did you get her to come out of her room?" Courfeyrac opens his door to a strange sight; myself sitting, up against the wall, and Serenity leaning over me, more than a little exposed. "I knew you were upset about Éponine, but I didn't expect you to go get a mistress!" Serenity's and my cheeks both redden.

"She's not-" I would never do that, as my mind is already set on one individual

"I'm not-" Both of us try to explain at the same time "You explain, Enjolras" she sighs, resigned

"She's _not_ my mistress, Courfeyrac, we just met. I was exploring and – uh – tripped outside her door. She came out to see what was wrong, nothing more." Serenity smiles gratefully when I don't mention her assault on me.

"Where's your door then, _Mademoiselle?_" Conveniently, her door appears next to Courfeyrac's. Rick is able to move around eternities to where he wants them. That is why Gavroche, Éponine and I's are all close to each other's.

"Right here, sir, I suppose I will be leaving you two now. Goodbye _Monsieur _Enjolras, it was nice meeting you" After mangling the French pronunciation, she waves at Courfeyrac and starts toward her door.

"_Au revoir Mademoiselle_ Serenity" Sleeping that night is difficult, as I keep imagining Serenity's blackened tongue coming at me.

The next morning I go to check on Éponine. I knock on her door tentatively, a muffled "_Go away!"_ greets me. I sigh, I expected as much.

"Good morning, Éponine, I brought you something to eat." I hand her some of Pascal's breakfast that he didn't eat. She pushes it away, she seems more sedated today. I see blood specks on her bed sheets.

"Oh my God, Éponine what happened?! Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?" I ask in a flurry

"This pain helps the other pain go away" She mumbles

"What? Éponine…" I turn her wrists over; there are fresh slices up and down her forearm. "Did you do this to yourself, _on purpose?!"_ Why in God's Holy name would she do this?

"It makes the other pain go away" She mumbles again

"What other pain?" I hurry about to inspect the rest of her body for injuries

"No, not that kind, but this kind" She holds her heart and starts to cry once more, and I finally understand. She's cutting herself because it keeps her mind off of Marius. I don't approve, not at all, I'm completely appalled that she would do this. I always thought her to be strong-willed. I think of something else to get her mind of Marius, something besides a knife.

"I found someone who could tutor the boys" She barely responds, curling up in a ball, as she has done many times before, to shield herself form the world. I flare up at her pathetic antics; I won't stand for it any longer.

"You can't just ignore your duties to them!" I yell at Éponine "They're your brothers whether you like it or not! And they need you, I can't just take care of them for eternity!"

"They don't need me! No one needs me… I'm unwanted everywhere I turn!" She cries

"That's not true" I soften "I need you" I brush a lock of her hair out of her face gently

"Don't lie to me! You don't give a shit about me! I'm just someone to _amuse_ you in this hell!" She spit venomously, smacking my hand away

"I'm not the one who broke you, Éponine, so stop pretending I am!" I shout, using anger to cover my hurt.

"You don't know how it feels to be hopelessly in love with someone who will _never_ love you back. You don't know how this _feels_!" She starts crying again

"Actually I do, Éponine, now don't blame me for your foolish love for the wrong boy!"

"The wrong boy? If Marius isn't the right boy, then who is?" She pleads with me.

On impulse I pull her broken body towards mine and kiss her. I kiss her with all the passion I'd been keeping a secret, ever since I saw how she looked at Marius, I've wanted her to look at _me_ that way.

"Enjolras…" Her voice is husky from crying

"Don't say anything, I know I shouldn't have done that" I mutter when I see the uncertainty on her face. So, my desire has been as wrong-headed as hers! My lungs feel as if they've collapsed, my jaw clenches in agony. I want to fix her, _help_ her! Why can't she see that?!


	5. The Marble Man

Chapter 5: The Marble Man

The days all blend together since I learned about Marius. But, yesterday I think it was, Enjolras came in, as he often does, and discovered that I'd been hurting myself. I expected him to be angry, but he wasn't, he – he even _kissed_ me. Images of Marius flash through my brain, how would he react to this? He probably would encourage it, or not care, because why would he care about me? Enjolras and he were friends though, weren't they?

I wander out of my room for the first time since that day I looked into the present for the second time. I walk slowly down the hallway, barely remembering where anything is. I hear the boys' loud voices on the other side of a door I don't recognize. I stop by to listen in.

"Gavroche! Listen up and stop distracting your brother! Now where were we?" An older women's voice scolds my brother.

"You were telling us about the first kings of France!" Pascal's voice sounds excited. Are these the lessons Enjolras was telling me about? The door I know to be Combeferre's opens and I hide behind a pillar. He knocks on the teacher's door.

"Oh is it that time already? Time to go boys, I'll see you tomorrow." I hear the scraping of chairs and the door opens.

"_Au revoir_ _Madame_ Dubois!" I hear Gavroche say to the old woman

"_Monsieur_ Combeferre! I was expecting _Monsieur_ Enjolras! Where is he?" _Madam_ Dubois clasps her pale hands together worriedly

"Where is Papa?" Pascal cries, I smile, having forgotten he calls Enjolras that

"_Madam _Dubois_, Monsieur_ Enjolras is – is not feeling well, come on boys" Combeferre leads the boys into his room and closes the door. _Madam_ Dubois closes her door. Enjolras is not well? What happened to him in the past night? I knock on Combeferre's door hesitantly. When he opens it, he is surprised to see me there.

"_Mademoiselle_ Éponine? What are you doing here?" Both of the boys' ears perk up when they hear my name

"Ponnie?" Gavroche gasps

"_Maman?"_ Pascal runs and hugs my skirts "I've missed you! Papa has been sad" He is the most honest boy I've ever met, but in the innocent, little kid way.

"What _is_ wrong with Enjolras, _Monsieur _Combeferre?" Combeferre shakes his head

"If you don't already know, there's nothing I can do for you" He scoots Gavroche out of his room and closes it sharply.

"They've all been like this since yesterday, I dunno what's wrong" Gavroche speaks up once we start walking. I decide to go and talk to Courfeyrac. I knock on his door forcefully.

"What are you doing here, _Mademoiselle?_"

"I want to know what is wrong with Enjolras!" I stomp my foot, when he shakes his head

"Our dear Antoine's marble has cracked" he responds mysteriously

"What does that even _mean_?! And Antoine?" Pascal wiggles his feet, I put him down and he and Gavroche run off, down the hallway.

"Antoine is his first name, Éponine" And with that last comment, Courfeyrac also closes his door. I sigh, these boys confuse me so. Do they all go by their last names? I shake my head and start down the hallway to follow my boys, though I haven't gone more than a few steps when I hear a familiar voice behind an unfamiliar door.

"Oh, I don't know, talk about anything" The familiar voice, Enjolras, muses, after a long silence, I hear him stand and start towards the door. Suddenly, he stops; I hear a sound that I had become accustomed to when we still owned the Inn. A small window appears in the door. My curiosity wins over my repellence. The scene that greets me is quite unwelcome. The room is lit by a large window and, pushed against a wall is Enjolras and a busty blonde girl. The window disappears, but the image is burned in my mind. The image of Enjolras kissing that hussy.

* * *

I push Serenity off me when I hear the sound of staggering footsteps outside her door. I honestly have no idea why I came here. I was seeking company, I suppose, though Serenity keeps coming far too close to me. She's pretty, I suppose, in the typical porcelain-doll way that I never really liked, her figure probably caught the attention of many men during her life, which is most likely why she's so confused by my refusals. Eventually, I just let her kiss me, not caring anymore.

I open the door and see the retreating image of Éponine, who turns at the sound of my opening the door.

"Oh God, Éponine!" I call after my friend "Stop, it's not like that!" She shakes her head, burying her face in her hands and continues to run. I look briefly back at Serenity and hurry after her. I catch up to her as she reaches her room.

"Éponine…" She smacks me right across the face

"No enough! I'm done with men! All they ever do is hurt me!" She spits and closes her door in my face. I return to my room in a stunned daze. Gavroche and Pascal are playing there, with Combeferre, Courfeyrac and Granataire as their observers.

"Papa?" Pascal approaches me

"I'm not your dammed _pére_!" Pascal's tiny face falls, and tears well in his eyes. I turn away.

"Enjolras! What the hell!" Combeferre, the under spoken one of us all, sounds astonished

"_Mon ami_, what has happened to you? You can't treat him like that! We don't care if you don't really care for the boy, but at least act like it! You were once the _L'homme de Marbre_, a noble and honorable man; but now, you anger easily and at any mention Éponine" I wince at her name "you flare up and do something foolish. You remember how you got that nickname? By not showing your emotions for the world to see! You kept impassive for other's benefit as much as your own!" Courfeyrac spits in my face "You're not the Enjolras who started a revolution! You're not the Enjolras who kept us all in line! You're not our Antoine." With that he storms out of my room, I stand, stunned and look to my two other friends. Combeferre and Granataire leave after him, not meeting my eye, but shaking their heads, in disgust or disbelief I can't deduce. I'm left to my own devices as the two youngsters follow suite. What _has_ happened to me?!

_Red, the blood of angry men! Black, the dark of ages past… Marius you're no longer a child, I do not doubt you mean it well, but now there is a higher call! Who cares about your lonely soul, we strive towards a larger goal! Our little lives don't count at all!_

This memory comes back to me; I was a very different man then, full of hope. I didn't know what it was to be in love and scorned Marius for it. But honorable and noble I was. Not petty and selfish. Despite his slight incompetence, I like that man more than the man I've become. That man would have never let Serenity kiss him or kiss Éponine without knowing first her feelings for him. The question is now, how do I get that man back?

Meanwhile

My mind's eye is searing with the image of Enjolras kissing that blonde-haired hussy. Of course he would want her over me, what was I thinking? Even in this place, he can find someone more suitable than dirty Éponine. She's prettier than I am. The only difference between her and Cosette is her much more filled out figure. Nonetheless, I am always looked over, as the ugly one, the dirty one, forgotten. It only makes sense Enjolras would prefer that girl, just as Marius prefers Cosette. I'm worthless, I'd do the world a favor and get rid of myself now if I wasn't already dead.


	6. Reconciliation is Bliss

**I'm getting some strange viewing stats, it says that they are more people viewing this chapter than the two before it. So, if you haven't read those two GO BACK AND READ THEM please, thanks, I appreciate all of your support and keep reviewing! **

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Chapter 6: Reconciliation is Bliss

Now I know what is like for the rest of the dead, alone, all the time. I visit Serenity only once, our meeting goes something like this.

"I'm sorry about your lady friend" She says guiltily "Now I know why you didn't want me"

"Well, she's not exactly talking to me at the moment, so thank you for that"

"Go talk to her" She starts to push me out the door

"Serenity, she _won't_ talk to me!" I protest

"When you know she's in her room, speak to her through the door. It doesn't matter if she won't talk to you face to face, but she'll know _your_ point of view" Serenity pushes me all the way out of her room and starts to close her door.

"Thanks Serenity" She smiles and closes her door completely.

I stride off down the corridor, to where I know Éponine's room is. I knock hesitantly, realizing I don't know what I want to say.

"Who is it?" Her cordial voice calls out

"Me" She sighs heavily

"Go away, Enjolras" I don't move an inch and neither does she, that I can hear.

* * *

"Éponine" I hear his voice and I sigh, sure he was gone "I'm sorry about what happened. I don't and never did think of Serenity that way." I assume Serenity to be the hussy he was with "I want you to know that I do care about you. I've been acting ridiculously recently and I don't know what came over me." He pauses for me to respond, though he knows I won't "_Je t'aime_" He whispers this so quietly I'm not sure if I heard him right. He – he what? He can't… who would love _me?_ My heart warms as I recall his whisper. He loves me. Enjolras loves me.

* * *

They are waiting for me when I return to my garden. Granataire is the only one who looks genuinely happy to be there.

"This is a surprise, _bonjour, mes am – Messieurs" _I correct myself hastily

"_I want you to know I do care about you!_ How did apologizing to _votre amour_ go?" Granataire mocks me, sober for once.

"She didn't exactly respond" I mutter

"Ah, I see, well, we" He motions to all three of them "want to apologize to you"

"Even though you were the one who was out of line" Courfeyrac puts in bitterly, clearly Granataire dragged them here

"I think I should start" I say, starting to smile "I'm sorry for being, well, a _salaud"_

"And I'm sorry for yelling at you" Courfeyrac says

"_Merveilleux_! Now that we are all friends once more, let us drink to Enjolras' failure of a love life!" Granataire laughs and sends around a bottle of whiskey.

* * *

"Antoine?" A small voice sounds by my door. I look up from the book I hadn't really been reading and see her standing there, unsure

"Éponine? I thought you were done with me" I mutter at her weak frame

"I wasn't in my right mind, you know that and I _had_ just suffered quite a distressing shock" She whispers, trying to inch ever closer to me

"I wasn't either, what I said earlier…" I see the hurt flash in her eyes. I always manage to mess these things up

"Antoine, listen to me" I cringe inwardly when she uses my given first name

"Why should I listen to you? You never listened to a word I said back there, just denied it. Contrary to your beliefs, Éponine, people do care about you and you are needed. So get that through you thick skull and stop whining" That last part came out much harsher than I meant. To my surprise, her lips curl into a small smile

"That's the Enjolras I know, all cutting comments and impassive attitude" She comes and sits beside me, I don't push her away. She's far too close to me for my own good and she knows it

"Don't you dare use how I feel about you against me!" I whisper savagely in her face

"How do you feel about me, Antoine?" She teases, toying with my hair, her street-roots become quite evident. I take a deep breath, trying to retain my self-control. I won't let her win this

"I thought the answer was rather clear" I say through clenched teeth

"Didn't you just say you weren't in your right mind when you said what you did?" She questions innocently, biting her lip and messing with the collar of my shirt

"Oh shut it" I remark, trying to sound cutting, but she laughs, then falls silent. The sad Éponine that I've known for the past month settles back in. She puts her hands in her lap and stares at them, as if just realizing what she had been doing.

"I- I'm sorry, Antoine, I don't know why I was doing that" She moves a respectable distance away from me. I pull her back, closer to me and she lays her head on my chest

"You're bad for me, Ponnie" This time she really laughs, a full out bark.

"I hope so" She brings her head up and kisses me, full on the lips, with much more passion than I thought she could ever feel for me. It is hard to retain my old marble-self while this is happening, so I discard it and cradle her face tenderly. Éponine falls asleep on my chest that night. I sigh, content at the sight of the sleeping Éponine. Her raven hair frames her tanned face beautifully. Finally…

The Next Morning

"Oh look at you two!" Granataire's chuckle wakes us both up. Éponine's cheek flush a deep crimson, and I throw the book I had with me before Éponine arrived at him. "Not quite a failure now, _mon ami_" He winks at me

"_Se taire,_ Granataire" Courfeyrac, Combeferre and the boys enter behind him and is that _Jehan, Joly, Bossuet, Bahorel and Feuilly?!_

"We've devoted our time, since we exiled you, between the boys and finding the others." Courfeyrac says matter-of-factly

"As you can tell, we found all of them" Combeferre mentions unnecessarily

"We are only missing Marius" Courfeyrac says quietly

"He is happily in love and still living" Éponine tells the others nonchalantly, slipping her hand into mine. Jehan, Joly, Bossuet, Bahorel and Feuilly come to greet me. While Gavroche looks at our joined hands with a smirk. Pascal whispers something to him, to which he only smiles.

"_Mon ami_! It is great to see you again!" Bahorel greets me first

"Enjolras" Feuilly shakes my hand

"My luck seems to have improved, I'm glad to have found you again, _mon ami_" Bossuet laughs

"_Il est bon de vous revoir_, Enjolras!" Joly follows soon after his friend

"I see you've finally found a lady, Enjolras, good to see you" Jehan pats my shoulder warmly

"_Les amis de l'ABC_ is reunited at last!" Granataire yells cheerily, passing around a bottle of fine red wine. When it reaches Gavroche and Pascal, Éponine takes it and gives it to Courfeyrac, who is on their other side.

"But Ponnie!" Gavroche pouts

"_No_ Gavroche, you're only thirteen!" She scolds her brother

"_Maman-"_ Pascal starts

"Of course not!" The _Les amis de l'ABC_ are happy to be back together. I have Éponine and she has her brothers. The afterlife isn't so bad after all.


	7. Phantom Vision

Chapter 7: Phantom Vision

"Good Morning, _mon cher_" Éponine greets me cheerily, carrying in a plate of food, that _should_ be lavish, considering we can simply conjure up food here, but looks more homely. The rest of _Les Amis_ are sleeping off their drinks on the other side of the garden.

"You do know we don't have to eat here?" I tell her, bemused and touched by her handiwork. I take an apple anyway. She smiles brightly

"I know, but I just wanted to make something for you!" I laugh and put my arm around her, as she sits next to me. We eat in comfortable silence with occasional conversation in between. I kiss her softly when we are finished, I can taste the fresh fruit on her lips. The door opens just then, we part reluctantly

"Ponnie, stop flirting with Enjolras and help me get Pascal ready for lessons! He won't listen to me!" Gavroche insists, I smile gently at her and nudge her forward. Almost at the door, she turns a blows me a kiss. I smile easily and chuckle at her antics.

"Oh, _génial, _food!" Most of my friends say something along these lines when he finds the plate of food Éponine prepared, which we didn't finish. It is gone soon enough. Eight young men eat _a lot_ and without hesitation or manners. Jehan is one of the only ones eating the food with any remnants of pride.

"I haven't had a _real_ meal in ages!" Bossuet groans happily

"Who made this and where can we get more?" Joly asks

"Éponine made it, _mes amis_" I smile at all of their faces of shock

"I didn't know Éponine could cook" Feuilly comments mildly

"I'm assuming she made it for you two to share, Antoine" Jehan winks, I roll my eyes at their childishness

"_Who cares about your lonely soul_?" Bahorel quotes me with a smirk

"I was a very different man then, there was a revolution to be fought!" I protest my friend's teasing

"There _still is_ a revolution to be fought!" Courfeyrac points out

"But there's nothing we can do! If you care to remember, _mon ami_, we're dead!" Granataire shouts at him

"Isn't there?" Combeferre states quietly, silencing us all

* * *

"_Maman!_" Pascal hugs my skirts joyously when I enter the room he shares with Gavroche.

"She's _not _your mother, Pascal! She's your sister!" Gavroche yells roughly, frustrated

"_Maman?"_ Pascal looks up at me, tears starting to pool in his eyes. I pick him up, sit on his bed, and sit him on my lap.

"Pascal… I'm not your mother; I'm your older sister. And" I sigh "_Monsieur_ Enjolras is not your father, he is my friend" I smile, using friend in loss for a better word, though we _are_ more than that. Gavroche laughs when I say friend, I glare at him and he shuts up. "_Tu vas bien_,Pascal?" He nods running his hand through his sandy curls. "You need a haircut Pascal" He pouts as I dress him.

After I drop the boys at _Madam_ Dubois's, I decide to visit Rick, unannounced. I enter the White Room without knocking. Opening the door, I see the retreating image of Rick going _through_ the pool. I grab his arm, which is the only part of him remaining and pull him back in roughly.

"What the-" He sees me, enraged, to be the one holding his arm "Éponine, What are you doing here?!" Rick says, alarmed

"What was that? Were you going _to_ Earth?" I splutter, baffled by this new development

"Yes, I was" He resigns, sighing heavily, if he had glasses, he would be taking them off now and rubbing the bridge of his nose, as those with glasses often do when worried.

"Well, I'm not leaving until you explain it fully" I cross my arms and sit on his desk.

"Éponine, don't be childish"

"Tell me! Why didn't you mention this before?"

"Fine, some souls don't want to leave the world of the living, as they are still attached to it. You might call them ghosts or lost souls. They fight Irene-" Fine has become his mantra, when dealing with me.

"Who's Irene? Another secret? I'm growing not to trust a word you say!" I cut him off; annoyed that there is still so much I don't know about this place!

"It's not _what_ I say, it's what I _don't_. She's my assistant; she receives the dead's souls from Earth and brings them here. She's dealing with a particularly difficult soul at the moment, so if you'll excuse me" He steps through the pool once more. It takes me only a split second to decide to follow him; Enjolras will pick the boys up from _Madam_ Dubois's. I put my arm through cautiously, not sure if it will work with me. At about my elbow I stop feeling the pool, instead feeling a nice breeze on my forearm. I jump through excitedly. At first I'm not sure where I am, but then little things become familiar. I'm in Paris! What luck! I walk through my old slums to where I know my parents had lived with Azelma. I have no idea if they still do.

The sight that greets me when I open the door is a strange one. My parents are sitting over the ratty couch that appears to be being used as Azelma's bed. Azelma herself is lying on it, dead, having suffered a horrid ailment, by the looks of it.

Rick and the woman who must be Irene, who I can only describe as shimmery, are pulling at the projection of Azelma, her ghost. My parents, however, take no notice of this affair, instead my father smacks Azelma across the face.

"You selfish girl!" My father scolds "You can't die now! Not now when you are our main source of cash!" He shakes her shoulders and smacks her again. My mother catches his hand before the third slap and places them back in his lap.

"There's nothing to do, Yves! She's dead, just like Éponine and Gavroche." When she says this, I see real sadness in my mother's eyes. She's sad we're dead, my self-centered, money-obsessed mother is _sad _that I'm dead.

Rick and Irene barely take note of this conversation, tugging on Azelma's ghost. Rick, Irene, and Ghost-Azelma are all translucent. I look at my own hands and see they are the same. I'm a ghost! I laugh and think of the old stories and how I could reenact them if I wanted.

Azelma's ghost is not giving way to Rick or Irene, I decide to help them. I make myself visible to her, also to Rick and Irene, unfortunately.

"Éponine!" Rick scolds me sharply.

"_Sœur_?" Azelma's ghost looks up in surprise.

"Yes, it is me, Azelma, but now, please let go, there is nothing here for you any longer. Come with me, off to a better place." I urge her soothingly. She looks back at our parents one last time and releases her hold from her body. This sends Rick and Irene flying. Azelma floats over to me.

"Are we ghosts?" She asks in wonder

"Yes, for now, but, please, accompany my friends, Rick and Irene, to a place where you can be at peace. They will make you sleep for a while, but you'll wake up soon enough."

"Will I see you there?" My sister looks at me, scared

"Yes Zelma, you will, along with Gavroche and Pascal" Her eyes widen at Pascal's name "See you soon, _sœur"_ I murmur and motions for Rick and Irene to do their job. They do it, but look at me quizzically the whole while. I follow them back through the pool and Irene takes Azelma to her room. I stand alone against a fuming divine being.

"What the _hell_, Éponine! Why did you follow me?" Rick demands angrily

"I just saved your arse, Rickward, I'd expect you to be _even a little bit_ grateful!" I surprise even myself with my sass and I storm out to go to find Azelma's room. Irene is still there when I get there, she picked a room near mine. Irene's blonde hair seems to be scattered with fairy dust, it sparkles so. She's lean, like Rick, and graceful, but her skin is slightly more tanned, probably due to her more time on Earth.

"_Mademoiselle_ Éponine, your sister should wake up by tomorrow." She says rather formally, without turning from my sister. "I like your spirit, kid" She winks at me and is gone. I blink, surprised by that rather abrupt exit. I take her seat by my sister. I hear the distant voices of Enjolras and _Madam _Dubois and the running feet of my two brothers. They burst into my room ecstatic.

"_Maman, Maman!_" Pascal jumps up and down by my side, has he already forgotten our talk this morning?

"Yes Pascal?"

"Guess what we learned today?!" Gavroche rolls his eyes at his brother's eagerness

"Don't discourage him, Vroche! It's good he's so interested!" I scold him "What did you learn today, Pascal?" I address him sweetly

"Guess!"

"Okay – erm – did you learn about...? Oh I don't know, I never learned any of this!" I shake my head, discouraged by my lack of education. Pascal looks rather put out "Tell me?"

"We learned how add! I'm not very good at it, but Vroche got it immediately!" Pascal regains some of his excitement. I look up and see Enjolras standing in the door, looking bemused by our conversation. Oh God, how long has he been there? He didn't hear me give up, did he?

"That's great, Pascal! Guess who I found today?" I wiggle my eyebrows comically, both the boys laugh and Pascal eagerly asks what. "A special someone, who you all will be excited to meet" Gavroche's eyes light up, while Pascal looks confused. I see Enjolras mouth _Azelma?_ and I nod slightly.

"You found her?!" Gavroche says breathlessly

"Who?" whines Pascal

"She found our other sister, Pascal. She found Azelma!" Gavroche answers for me

"Really?" Pascal starts to get excited too

"Can we go see her?" Gavroche asks longingly

"No, right now she's sleeping, but when she wakes, of course!" The boys clap their hands in excitement and leave the room full of joy. Enjolras moves out of the doorway, so they can leave. He comes in and sits next to me on my bed.

"I'm glad you found your sister, I'd like to hear more about it some time. But now, I'd like to start to address your lack of education... Do you want me to tutor you? I almost finished at the university." He offers generously

"Oh yes! That would be _fantastique!_" I gush and kiss him on the cheek in thanks


	8. Barely There

Chapter 8: Barely There

**I forgot to post this yesterday! THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR HELPING ME HIT 1,000 VIEWS! XDDDDD I CAN BARELY BELIEVE IT! Also, i'm sorry this one is about twice as long as the rest - SORRY**

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Chapter 8: Barely There

"The revolution can't just be forgotten!" Courfeyrac insists, as if we are all arguing with him

"We're not arguing with you, _mon ami_" Combeferre sighs, we all nod wearily

"There _must_ be something we can do!" Bahorel assures us, though we all see the uncertainty in his eyes and know he's as clueless as we are about _what_ to.

"If you haven't noticed, _mes amis_, we're aren't exactly in that world any longer" Feuilly mutters bitterly. Courfeyrac stands to start an actual argument with him. Jehan and I pull him down. Everyone's been on edge since we've reunited. When separated, none of us felt the weight of losing as heavily as we do now that we have each other.

"I'll – um – I'll talk to Rick about it and see if there's anything we can do" I sigh, reluctant to talk to that pretty boy

* * *

"That's all we'll work on today" Enjolras closes the book he had me studying

"Okay, thank you so much, Antoine!" I kiss his cheek enthusiastically

"_Vous êtes les bienvenus_, Éponine"

"Can I show you something?" I look up at him through my eyelashes slyly, having just thought of this.

"Whatever you like" He responds with an affectionate smile. I grasp his hand in excited anticipation and start to run out of my room and down the corridor. "Where are we going?" He pesters me soon after we pass his door. I put a finger to my lips mysteriously and continue to run. We end up outside the White Room. I put my ear to the door and listen carefully, searching for some sound, any small trace of Rick. Hearing nothing, I open the door with the utmost amount of caution I can muster at this level of excitement. "Éponine, why are we here?" Enjolras hisses in my ear. I shush him furiously. I search every nook and cranny as Enjolras stands near the door, quite confused.

"Looking for our dear Rickward?" I spin around hastily to find Irene sitting on Rick's desk.

"Irene" I sigh, relieved "_Oui_, do you know where he is?"

"Oh please, dear, call me Rena, Rick's the only one who still calls me that. Speaking of our pale friend, he is currently… out" She laughs, a sound like the tinkling of the smallest bell, and ends cryptically

"Éponine?" Enjolras looks at me with uncertainty, I'm suddenly very aware of how attractive Rena is.

"This is Ir-Rena, Rick's assistant"

"_Ravi de vous rencontrer, Mademoiselle_" He bows and kisses her hand

"And you, _Monsieur _Enjolras, I respect you very deeply in the way you chose to die" Rena tells him earnestly, Enjolras's eyes narrow in suspicion

"She takes the dead from Earth to the afterlife" I answer the question almost dripping from his lips. He nods

"Thank you, _Mademoiselle_"

"You two had better be off before Rickward returns. I suggest picturing the place you want to go. Oh, and for the return journey, use the side door, it leads to my office" Rena winks and is gone.

* * *

Rena really is… something. But what does she mean _picturing the place you want to go… return journey_, where are we going?! Éponine approaches one wall, which appears to be a rippling _pool?_

"Éponine, what is all this? What journey are we making?!" I question her sharply

"We're visiting Earth" Her eyes light up with joy. Did she say _Earth_?! She instructs me to step into the pool.

"What? How can I? It's on the wall! Won't I be stopped by something?" Éponine rolls her eyes

"You go through it, _mon cher_, nothing will stop you, you'll be on Earth!"

"Doesn't someone _monitor _this?" I ask, hesitant

"_Yes_, Rick, which is why we're going when he's not here! You better go soon or I'll pull you in with me!" She laughs exasperatedly when I still hesitate and grabs my wrist and jumps through the pool. It is the strangest sensation I've ever experienced. The pool feels like water, but also like dry silk, I don't quite know how to explain it. Then, I feel water on my face, _real _water, raindrops! I look into the sky, the _real_ sky, not the pale imitation in the afterlife, a currently grey and cloudy sky.

"Is this real?" I ask in wonder

"Yes, _mon amour_" Éponine laughs, her eyes twinkling. I hold her hands and start to run. I don't know where I'm going, as this wasn't my part of town. We run and run through this rain, something we'd been deprived of for ages. It doesn't rain in the afterlife. I never particularly enjoyed the rain when I lived, it was always a nuisance. But now, it represents everything I miss about being alive.

"Can we go anywhere? Won't people see us?" Éponine shakes her head and when I drop her hand, I notice how, well, translucent, she looked. Are we ghosts? I look at my hands, sure enough, I can blurrily see through them!

"Are you okay with visiting Marius?" She asks me, uncertainty ringing in her voice.

"Of course! Marius is my only friend still alive…" She nods, takes my hand once more, leading me to where Marius lives now with Cosette. She opens the door unnecessarily and strides in, walking up the stairs like she owns them.

"Do you know where you're going?" Éponine looks back at me with a confident smile.

"No" I follow her when she walks through a door on the second landing. Marius is sitting next to Cosette, holding her hands while she quietly moans in pain.

"Morning sickness" Éponine murmurs to me

"She's with a child?" I ask in alarm, to which she only nods. Éponine closes her eyes, as if thinking very hard. Suddenly, she becomes more solid. Marius and Cosette both call out when they see her.

"Don't be alarmed! I'm not here to hurt you!" She assures them hastily "Don't you recognize me? Marius? Cosette?" She asks they desperately, Marius searches her face for something he might recognize. Cosette's eyes light up once she realizes

"Éponine! What are you doing here?"

"I came to… I don't quite know, Enjolras and I escaped into this world, but didn't know what to do after that, so we came here" I sigh when she mentions me

"Enjolras? Show yourself!" Marius commands, I laugh, appearing to the couple

"Hello, _mon ami_" A small smile tugs at my lips when I see Marius's bewilderment

"But, both of you are dead! Éponine, I held you while you died and Enjolras, I saw your body!"

"We're dead, Marius, nothing can change that." I sigh at my friend's idiocy

"Then, how are you here?!"

"I guess you could call us ghosts" I respond casually. Once Marius calms down, we catch up, in a manner of speaking, I tell him of the afterlife. Éponine seems uncomfortable talking to the pregnant Cosette, but she does it nonetheless.

"On, Enjolras, your sisters are in town!" I don't ask how Marius knows this, but simply nod. Finally, we turn to leave, waving our goodbyes to the lovesick couple. I hesitate, thinking to ask Éponine who we can visit next.

"Éponine… can we find my sisters? Marius told me that they are in Paris. I know where their flat is." I mumble, she cradles one side of my face tenderly

"Of course we can, lead the way, Antoine" I take her hand, for the comfort, hoping my father isn't with them. I'd have to go and haunt Marius for ages if he is since he didn't mention him.

I walk over the wet cobblestones nervously. When I reach my destination, I stand outside of their door, agitated. I don't want to walk in on anything. I never know what Corinne will be up to. Corinne is my… bolder sister, but I like her that way. She's the only not reserved sibling. I make my fist solid and knock on the door, quickly and cordially. Élodie answers, Corinne's twin sister and my little sister. I can tell it's Élodie because of the thin blue ring around her green irises. She looks around the door bewildered. When she starts to close the door, I catch it, making my whole self visible. She lets out a blood-curdling scream, of course she would. For this reason, Éponine remains visible to only me.

"Élodie, calm down!" I assure my whimpering sister

"But – but, you're dead" She faints into a chair placed conveniently there, I assume for that use. I hear Corinne yell frantically for her sister.

"Élodie, what happened?!" Corinne stops short when she sees me in the doorframe. The first thing she does is run to me, trying to tackle me with a hug. "I knew you weren't dead! I knew Papa was lying!" She runs right through me, landing badly on the floor. The tenant across the hall opens their door, I quickly make myself invisible.

"Could you two quiet down? I'll tell your father when he returns!" Corinne stands up with as much dignity as she can muster and curtsies to the old man. Seeing her, reminds me that her and Élodie also carry themselves completely differently. Corinne is more care-free, or she used to be that way, now she is just less rigid.

"I'm deeply sorry, _Monsieur,_ it won't happen again." He closes his door and she spins around, closing her door and turns back to me. I am now standing just in the doorframe, I can feel Éponine next to me, squeezing my hand reassuringly, but my eyes are focused on my sister.

"I know you're here, Antoine. Come out right now, you owe me that much for getting my hopes up" I appear at her request. "A ghost then?" I nod, smiling slightly at her quick wit.

"I wanted to visit you while I had the chance."

"Have you found _Maman_ where you are?" I shake my head sadly, she sighs "Well, we better take Élodie upstairs."

"We? Cor, you mean _you_, we've already been over the fact that I can't touch you"

"Right, what's your use if you can't do the heavy-lifting?" She mutters, annoyed, Élodie ends up on the couch in the next room, as Corinne couldn't life her up the stairs. Corinne sits on the couch opposite and stares brokenly into space.

"Cor, are you okay?" I ask her, worried she might burst into tears

"_Non_! I'm _not_ okay! First mother and now you! I don't think I could handle it if Élodie died." She's crying now, I move to comfort her, but remembering I can't touch her, I settle for floating next to her. "Oh, Antoine, I miss you so much! Some days I can't even get out of bed! I wish I could just… I don't know… bring you back! You're the main reason I survived mother's death! Even though _Pére_ wouldn't let me visit you, your letters were enough! I truly respect what you did for France, Antoine, but why did you have to die for it?" I feel a tear wet my shoulder, and I look up to see Éponine crying as well, I don't quite know why. She gives me a watery smile. Corinne looks at Élodie quietly.

"She misses you, you know. You two were so very alike. At Grace every night, we pray for you and mother. Papa doesn't like it, but he can't stop us, not anymore." I see the old defiance back in her eyes "We're of marrying age now, you know." She smiles at me with what should have been a sly-look, but just seems empty to me.

"Just barely, if I recall correctly" I murmur, they are only six years younger than me, placing them at fifteen. I hear the stomping footsteps of my father and force myself to disappear.

"Corinne, come open the door for me!" My sister wipes her tears away hastily and rushes to the door. In walks in my father, rough, broad, tall and bald. His icy eyes mirror mine to every detail. "Where is Élodie?" He asks her sharply

"She's – er –" Corinne stammers, obviously trying to make something up to cover up my appearance.

"Well? Where is she, _jeune fille?!_" I see my sister cringe at the name and bow her head to him and whisper Élodie's location. "Why the hell hasn't she answered then?!"

"She's – erm – unconscious" My father spins on her furiously. Élodie is his favorite.

"And why is that?" Every word he speaks is dripping with venom. I see him start to raise his hand to smack her when she doesn't answer and solidify myself. He intakes a sharp breath

"I surprised her" I say simply

"Why the hell are you here? You're dead, _mon cher fils"_ He spits the name in my face

"I'm well aware of that, _mon cher pére"_ I hold my ground, I'm almost as tall as him, but he's remarkably broader

"Why are you here, Antoine?"

"Thought I'd visit my sisters"

"Much good you've done for them" He removes his nice coat, hanging it up in the closet.

"Élodie was surprised, that's all" Éponine and Corinne are watching us with baited breath.

"Like she'd want to see you, _sot_"

"Don't you dare call my brother that!" Corinne intercepts angrily. Our father is stunned, neither of the girls ever stood up for me before, they were too scared of him. "I'm not weak anymore, _pére_! I'll be marrying soon and I can't wait to get out from under your _maudit_ thumb!" My father doesn't hesitate this time; he smacks her right across the face. I can't do anything about it.

"Stop this!" I yell, he pays me no heed, beating Corinne repeatedly. Her screams rouse the neighbor, not the old man, but another, and he comes rushing in. My eyes are blinded with anger

"Sébastien!" Corinne says, this boy rips my father away from my sister. I'm standing there, unable to do anything to protect her; instead this stranger had to come to her aid. He kneels down to inspect Corinne's wounds. She turns to me, catches my eye and smiles weakly. I disappear when the boy looks. Éponine meets my eyes and mouths "_I'm so sorry_" I shake my head in despair

"Corinne, are you okay?" He asks frantically

"I'm fine now" I see something in her eyes I've never seen before. Similar to the look Éponine gave Marius before she died, except this love doesn't seem to be unrequited.

"Come on Éponine, I've caused enough strife for one night" She nods silently and we walk quietly from the room, back through Paris and back into the afterlife, our world now.

* * *

**A/N: I did not intend for this chapter to go that way, or be so LONG. I'm sorry guys - hope you liked it! **

**~MagicalGirl**


	9. Ghosts of the Past

**Sorry this took so long! I was having Writer's Block... Hope you like it! Reviews would be wonderful! Shout out to Mormeril Dark Lady of Insanity, who has kept me writing with her constant reviews!  
**

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Chapter 9: Ghosts of the Past

"Don't you dare pretend that it didn't happen! Because it did, he was here!" Corinne yells at her sister. Élodie, in response, shakes her head.

"How could it have? Antoine's dead and ghosts aren't real, Cor. You know that, I know that. Stop insisting you saw our brother's ghost!" The girl stomps her foot at her apparently delusional sister.

"You saw him! I saw him! _Papa_ _saw him_!" The blonde screeches

"Corinne Monique Enjolras, you shut your mouth right now! Your brother is dead; I don't care of your hallucinations!" The girls' father shouts from the other room. Both girls fall silent.

"I wish he was still here too, Corinne, but – but it's simply not possible." On that bitter note, Élodie walks from the room, leaving her dismayed sister's green eyes brimming with tears.

* * *

"You see the problem with letting the dead go into the world of the living?!" Rick spits, voice full of venom, scolding the guilty Éponine, Rena, and myself.

"Rickward, they did and still do have unfinished business on Earth!" Rena fights for us

"So do almost all of the dead, Irene, if you care to remember! We can't keep giving this group of rebels advantages that the other dead can't have!" Rick shouts at his assistant. The usual sparkle in both of their eyes has gone out. It stings to see my sisters fighting, especially when Élodie and my father deny my being there. No surprise about my dad though. Rick continues to ramble on about our horrendous behavior. Éponine seems to be spacing out as well. Seeing my family brought back the pain of my mother's death.

_A young, golden-haired man opens a well-worn letter at his desk. The letter seems to have been opened, folded and cherished too many times. His eyes scan it more the tenth time that hour._

_ My Dearest Antoine,_

_ Son, I don't have much time. I'm fading. Come visit me as soon as possible. I would love to see your face again before I sleep. _

_The man skips the middle section on the rest of his family and the neighbors, and right to the end._

_ Follow through on your dream, Antoine. Fix France. I know you will be able to change it._

_ Your loving Mother,_

_ Aurélie_

I recall that letter perfectly, having memorized it after she died. I never got to make that last visit. I feel Éponine's smooth hand slip into mine. I turn and smile at her; no one is listening to Rick anymore. This painful memory of my mother pulls me out of the dream world of the afterlife. An idea hits me like a bullet.

"I don't give a flying fuck about your rules, Rick; I have a revolution to continue" Everyone present is astounded. I rush out, wanting to tell _Les Amis_ of my new idea. I hear Éponine's quick footsteps following after me. I knock on all their doors and yell down the hall for them to meet me in my room. Soon enough, _Les Amis l'ABC _are gathered by the oak tree, all a-flutter.

"_Mes amis_, I recently discovered a passage to Earth" I announce to the group. Éponine's eyes widen and she looks at me, appalled.

"Great, so?" Feuilly sounds unimpressed "How does that help us? Surely we won't simply be alive by setting foot on Earth again" This makes some of the other boys nod, I hush them all and start to explain the beginnings of my plan

"No we wouldn't be, Feuilly, we would be spirits, ghosts. But what we _can_ do is make sure our legacy lives on!" I start to use the commanding voice I used for speeches back when I was alive. It feels good, I miss it, all of it.

"How, pray, tell, dear Antoine, are we going to 'make sure our legacy lives on'?" Bahorel snaps, I wince at their unwillingness, what has happened to them?

"We will find a person or a group of people to continue what we started! Connect with that person, get them to understand exactly what we need to happen and how he may enact that!" Some of the boys are looking brighter, which is encouraging

"How?" Bahorel reiterates

"I will go into the world of the living and find this person, speak with them, convince them, watch them from afar." Every boy in the room nods his head and I dismiss them, as if this was one of our rally meetings. Éponine approaches me, angrily, after they all leave.

"Rick's not going to allow this-" I cut her off easily

"I thought I made it clear earlier what I thought of Rick's 'rules'"

"I _know_, but what are you playing at, getting the boys all excited like this?"

"I want them to feel as if they can still do something, even from the grave" The boys deserve that for all they've done. "And this _will_ work! I'll make it work!" Éponine reaches for my hand, tears in her eyes. Why are females so emotional _all the time_?!

"Oh Antoine, this drive is what killed you. It's what made people follow you to their graves as well. I'm glad you can't die a second time because I don't think I could handle that" Éponine raises her face to mine and kisses me tenderly.

"_Maman_, Papa!" We break apart reluctantly at Pascal's shout. He speeds into the room, almost missing us. Éponine grabs his shirt collar and he stops in front of us. "Zelma's awake!" Éponine gasps and runs out after him, I follow slowly. Inside, I see a scrawny girl, who has bags under her blue eyes and whose reddish-brown waves are scraggily, sitting up in a bed, with Gavroche, Pascal and Éponine surrounding it. I stand in the doorframe, feeling as if I shouldn't be here.

* * *

I fling myself on my newly-awake sister. She hugs me back with less zeal than I give her.

"Calm down, Eppy" I stick my tongue out at her use of her old nickname for me.

"How are you, Roux?" She sticks her tongue at me in response. I laugh at my victory. I hear the door open, but don't look as I'm positive it's Enjolras.

"Who's this _gamin_?" Azelma answers instead, motioning at Pascal

"Do you remember Pascal?" My sister nods, slowly understanding.

"Is this him?!" Pascal jumps into her arms and she snuggles him

"Yes, now, you didn't answer my question, how are you?"

"How do you think, Ep? I'm dead" She puts Pascal down by her bed once more

"Don't be cynical, R, there's more for you here than back on Earth" I turn and smile at Enjolras, who returns the gesture mostly with his eyes.

"Oh, so have you finally gotten over the coxcomb?" Azelma teases, referring to Marius

"Don't talk about Marius like that! But yes, I have. Now, enough about me, we have eternity to talk about me, what happened after the Barricades?"

* * *

"They didn't mourn you two if that's what you're asking" I see tears in Éponine's eyes at this.

"That wasn't what I was asking" She mutters, I come and sit beside her, letting her fold perfectly into my embrace. Azelma, after an uncomfortable cough, continues on about various things that happened after our failure at the Barricades. This is only fuel to the flames for me, I'll have to go down the Earth again soon, but no family visits this time.

"I fell very ill; I don't remember much after that, as I fell in and out of a hazy consciousness. The next clear image is being pulled from my body." We all nod, knowing the feeling. She recounts Éponine finding her and encouraging her to let go. "And next thing I know, I'm awake in this bed, the bed I grew up in. You remember Éponine, the one in Mom and Dad's room? Though, their bed seems to be notably missing" Her thin mouth quirks into a smirk. Then she looks me over judgingly "What's your name, _Monsieur?_"

"Enjolras, _Mademoiselle_" I bow my head in greeting

"_Mon amour, _could you take the boys? I'd like to talk with my sister alone" Éponine kisses my cheek when I nod. Pascal and Gavroche follow me out.

* * *

"He's quite dashing, _soeur_" Azelma remarks the moment Enjolras closes the door behind him.

"That he is" I murmur, smiling to myself

"Now, what did you want to talk to me about?" She inquires

"I'm going to give you the rundown of the afterlife. You can change anything with your thoughts." I pause, letting this sink in

"Whoa, really?!" I nod and she squeezes her eyes shut and suddenly, _pop, _her waves are luscious and shiny, her face seems less hollow and she's in an extravagant gown. "Oh my God!"

"Yes, it's quite fun. Now, Gavroche's, Enjolras's and my doors are just down the hall. Vroche's and mine are almost the same as yours, you remember our door." She nods "All of _Les Amis l'ABC_ is here with us, they are mostly several doors in the other direction. If you need me, just holler and remember, thinking is the way to go here. Also, you're welcome to explore, but do not go into the realm of the living. There's nothing for you there." She nods again, but more solemnly this time. "See you later, Roux, I've got to get the boys to their lessons" I hug my sister in parting and walk out of the door.

* * *

**Do any of you have a way you want the story to go? THEN TELL ME I'm open to many ideas :) - I also may still be having Writer's Block... :)**


	10. Love's Exploits

**Sorry this chapter is so short! I couldn't add anything to it that wouldn't make it triple it's size, so i stuck with this. I warn you, this chapter is full of cute moments, so prepare your feels. ENJOY**

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Chapter 10: Love's Exploits

I've been planning and plotting for days. My desk reminds me of what it was before the revolution. The other members of _Les Amis_ have been trying to come up with ideas, but as they haven't left the afterlife, they aren't much help. Every time Éponine sees the cluttered mess of our plans she clucks in disapproval. I ignore her distaste. Finally, when I think I have something plausible, which happens to be late at night for most people, I head over to Rena's office. I'll need her approval, after all her portal is important. I find her with her feet propped up on her desk, also with her eyes closed, as if meditating.

"Rena?" She doesn't startle easily, simply opening her eyes slowly.

"_Oui, Monsieur_ Enjolras?" Her pale eyes sparkle with amusement

"I need you to look over something" I hand her the papers with our plans written on them. Her eyes widen slightly as she reads and the sparkle grows to a full-on glow.

"You're not intending to go into the land of the living, are you _Monsieur?"_ She sounds shocked, but her excited demeanor could be translated into something else entirely.

"Of course not, _Mademoiselle_" I respond similarly

"_Madam_ actually" Rena corrects nonchalantly

"You're married?"

"Indeed, to Rick, how do you think I ended up here?"

"You don't exactly-" She cuts me off bemusedly

"Act like a couple? Yeah, I know" She says this as a final statement, ending that topic. I guess it's a sore spot for her.

"So, Rena, would this work for you? Or do you have any suggestions?" I change the subject back to my plans

"I'll have to look over it more thoroughly, but I think it's alright" I nod and walk back to my garden. To my surprise, Éponine is pacing around the tree. She's been spending a lot of time with her sister recently. She jumps and rushes for a hug when she sees me.

"I was so worried! I thought maybe you'd gone to Earth!" I smile at her and all her stress seems to melt from her face.

"I'm fine and still here, having not set foot on the Earth since our last outing" She sighs, relieved. I plant a kiss on her forehead. I tell her about my day, though I leave out the part about going to Rena's office.

"You, _mon cher_, need to relax" Éponine begins to massage my shoulders, I sigh contently.

"That's fantastic, thanks Ép" I turn to smile at her. The soft edges of her face and small smirk pull me in. I kiss her square on her mouth, my hands cupping her tanned face. I feel her hands snake up to my neck, playing with the curls on the nape of my neck. My skin is starting to feel tight and hot. Neither of us take notice of the pitter-patter of footsteps outside the door. The cry of "_Maman!_" is what tears us apart. I sigh as Éponine steps away forlornly. Pascal comes running into the room, immediately picking up on what he has just interrupted, or at least to the extent a five-year-old can. It doesn't stop him though; he continues his sobbing and overall distress.

"What is it, Pascal?" Éponine asks the young boy, not sounding as exasperated as I know she really is, instead sounding soft and comforting.

"The – the monsters are gonna get me! I saw one under Gav's b-bed, I tried to warn him, but he told me to go away! I don't want – I don't want it to get him or me!" Pascal's voice is high and panicky. Éponine deals with it expertly, holding him close and muttering to him that it wasn't real and he's safe, so safe. Gavroche is safe also. I stand to the side, observing this with a smile. She'd have made a great mother. I wonder if she wants any. I wonder if that's even possible in the afterlife.

Once Pascal has calmed down, Éponine goes to put him back to bed. On her way out, she tells me she'll be back with a flirty wink. I sit down amid the roots of a tree and pick up a book I'd left there earlier today. I can't concentrate and my thoughts wander, to the revolution, our plans, Éponine, more Éponine. She's rather distracting, that girl, even when she's not present.

"Where were we?" Éponine sly voice sounds from the doorway. I smile warmly. She walks toward me, moving her hips in a way I'm sure she wouldn't want Pascal or even Gavroche to witness. I shudder involuntarily when she moves her hand down my back. Our lips move in unison, getting faster and more feverish as time passes. We both start to subconsciously start to inch towards the room adjoining to the garden, something I had never noticed before now, a bedroom.

* * *

Light streams in the windows, I sigh, _fake light_, no matter how real it may seem, it's not real. It's not fueled by the sun. I think about moving, but decide against it, as I'm lying quite close to Enjolras and am rather warm and comfortable. A smile creeps onto my lips as I remember last night. I turn and study my companion quietly, reveling in all his beauty. He's that kind of handsome, the kind you can call beautiful. And he's mine. Those perfect, yet crazy, golden curls. Those frosty blue eyes. That marble-smooth skin. That soft half-smile. That completely sculpted chest. All mine. His eyes start to crack open and I avert my eyes, as to not be caught staring. I cuddle in closer to him, placing my head on his bare chest, suddenly chilly and aware of our lack of much clothing.

"Good Morning, _mon amour_" He murmurs, pushing some of my hair behind my ear. He thinks I'm still asleep! We lie there, both silent, both taking in the other as their own.

"_Je t'aime, _Antoine" I whisper into his chest. He smiles at me lovingly, in the way I thought no one would ever do.

Later

I knock softly on Rena's slightly ajar door. She shouts for me to enter. A look of surprise coats her face for a moment, upon seeing that it is me at her door.

"Why hello, _Mademoiselle _Éponine! What brings you here?"

"I was just wondering, if two people you know-" I gesture obscurely, feeling awkward at having to talk to her about this. At least it's not Rick

"You're asking if you can get pregnant here" Rena's eye sparkle with bemusement, I nod. "Life can't grow in the land of death" She states, almost sadly, I find myself to be entirely too disappointed. I thought maybe I could finally have a real family, even in the afterlife. Rena sees this and amends her former statement. "_Most _life can't, that is"

"What do you mean, Rena?" This woman just continues to confuse me further every time we meet.

"Only the product of true love can survive here. Now you ask yourself, is what you have true love? I can't answer that, only you and our dear Enjolras can" I nod slowly, mulling over this in my head. Is what Enjolras and I have true love? I love him and he loves me. I know that. But is it true love?

* * *

Éponine is constantly on my mind, I can never stop thinking about her. The revolution needs me. Can both have me? Is what I had believed before death correct or simply narrow-minded? Can love blossom in the midst of a revolution? Can both be equally reveled in?

"Enjolras!" I hear the loud voice of Gavroche. I peer up from my notes.

"Yes?"

"Pascal wants you to help us with our homework. _Madam_ Dubois assigned something really difficult tonight!" I sigh, placing my notes in the folder with the others, and follow him out.

* * *

I don't bother knocking as I enter my brothers' room. Inside I see Gavroche, Pascal and Enjolras all surrounding the small desk, talking with unwavering fluidity. This brings a smile to my lips. Enjolras is helping the boys with their homework. I stay in the doorframe, simply watching and listening. Eventually, they notice my presence and question how long I'd been standing there.

"A bit, watching my favorite boys makes me happy" I respond, my lips quirking into a wider smile. Enjolras stands and curls an arm around my waist. He brings me over to the desk. We then continue what I had interrupted. This is my family, right here. My two little brothers and Enjolras, _my _Enjolras. They make up my family, and for once in my life, I'm completely content.

**Tell me what you liked or didn't! Any direction you want the story to go in? TELL ME, I'm open to constructive critism!**


	11. The Old Revolutionary's Spirit

Chapter 11: The Old Revolutionary's Spirit

Waking up, I find myself uncomfortably stiff in Gavroche's desk chair. Éponine sleeps, leaning against my legs. I smile, seeing the two little boys curled up in her lap. Slowly, I detangle myself from them. It's still night, or early morning, I suppose. I decide to carry each of them to their own beds, so they don't wake quite as stiff as I did.

Neither of the boys stir, but when I place them on their soft beds, a ghost of a smile appears on both of their tiny faces. I bundle Éponine in my arms and bring her to her room, which hasn't been occupied in a while. Her eyes crack open when her cheek brushes the cool pillows.

"Antoine" She mumbles, smiling softly to herself and falling back asleep. I don't know how long I spend in there, simply watching Éponine breathe and murmur, breath and murmur, but eventually I bring myself to stand and leave my sleeping love. I have a revolution to spark once more. This time it is Rena waiting for me when I reach my room.

"_Bonjour Madam_"

"_Bonjour_, are you planning to do it today?" She inquires, a sparkle of… _something_ in her eyes.

"I was thinking today would be a good day. France can only wait so long for its revolution." I respond calmly and confidently.

"What about Éponine?" Rena's mouth quirks into a sly grin

"What about her?" I shoot back

"Doesn't she disapprove of your plan?" Her face looks much too innocent for her intentions

"She does, but she doesn't understand _why_ I have to do this. It was the only important thing I ever did in my short life and I never got to finish it. Now that I have the chance, of course I'm going to take it! I'm not going to make any foolish sentimental visits this time. This time is purely business."

"Who says a revolution is business?"

"Me" I say, ending that conversation and try to get back on topic. "So am I allowed to use your portal?" She nods and we're off down the corridor. We enter her office in silence.

"Good luck, Enjolras" Rena's eyes are shining, with hope I realize.

"Thank you, Rena, remember to hold up your part of the plan" She nods and I start through the portal, focusing on Paris, under the bridge Éponine had first taken me to. I walk through the city, now that I'm here, I don't know where to start.

I stay unseen this time, just waiting and watching. I see Marius and Cosette in the market place with their child, a little boy, but I don't say hello. I spend most of the day like this, but near the end, around twilight, I catch sight of a _gamin_ boy. A _gamin _boy reading a book, that's an unusual sight. Not to mention that the book is, in fact, _The Republic_ by Plato, one of my favorites. The political theory in it is brilliant. But it's a very complicated book, how can he even understand it? The boy seems vaguely familiar. He reminds me of someone, though I can't place quite who.

"Laurent!" Another, smaller, boy calls out to the _gamin. _Laurent? Isn't that the name of Éponine's third brother? Could this be him? I determine to follow him.

"Alain, what is it? Did Bruno burn down the Elephant? What about Luc? Is he okay?" The boy asks in panic, rushing towards the other boy. Now that I think about it, he looks about Gavroche's age, so he can't be _that_ Laurent, because _that _Laurent is three years younger than Gavroche.

"_Non_" The other boy, Alain, says with grin. "Everything's fine, better even!"

"Spit it out, Al!" Laurent groans at the younger boy

"Bruno, Luc and I got a meal today. A real one, with plates! And uten- unteni-" He is practically jumping up and down in excitement, but can't seem to pronounce the word 'utensils'.

"Utensils? Wow, did you save me any?"

"Yep! C'mon, we stashed it!" Laurent and Alain start to run in the same direction, clearly both knowing where they are headed, as I don't, I follow them closely. In the process of staying on their tail, I have to go _through_ things and people, which is a new experience for me. And quite disturbing I may add.

After much running through the city, we arrive at the half-built sculpture of an elephant which Napoleon had built, but then later abandoned. This must be 'the Elephant' the boy, Alain, mentioned earlier. A tiny, red-haired boy pops out and hurries to Laurent.

"Hey Luc, I heard you guys earned some food?" The little boy's curls bounce up and down as he nods eagerly. Another boy appears from the depths of the Elephant, blonde this time and much larger.

"Laurent! We thought you'd never show!" I deduce that this is Bruno, as that is the last name I recall hearing about. They make an odd assortment, Laurent, Alain, Bruno and Luc. I would assume them to be siblings, but none of them share any resemblance what so ever. Laurent is tall, for his age, and too thin with dark hair and green eyes that seem to hunger for knowledge of all sorts, the leader of the group. Alain is like a mouse, in every way, in the light brown shade of his hair, to the slightness of his body. Bruno is broad-shouldered and, if he was fed better, he would be quite stocky. Luc seems to be the runt of the group, due to the obvious age difference between himself and the other boys and his thin frame. "Still reading that _bourgeois_ book, are ya?" He points to the book still in Laurent's hand.

"Indeed I am and politics is not just for the wealthy, Bruno! We, the peasants of Paris, are what are going to change the system, not the _bourgeois! _The only reason the revolt back in '32 didn't succeed is because the people wouldn't help! We need to be educated on how _we _can help!" Alain and Luc both seem uncomfortable at this sudden outburst. Bruno rolls his eyes. Laurent speaks with much more education that typical of a twelve-year-old _gamin. _Could this young boy be the leader I'm looking for? But he's so young!

"That was three years ago, Laurent, get over it" Three _years_?! How has so much time passed?

"In case you've forgotten, my little brother died because of this system." Laurent's eyes harden with new grief and his voice becomes vicious.

"Pascal starved, you were poor, it's bound to happen to such a young'un" Bruno argues

"Luc was five too, and look at him, still alive" The small boy mentioned looks at his bare feet, not meeting either of their eyes. "Gavroche died for that cause. He believed in it." This last murmur makes all the boys look to the street, unable to meet the older boy's hard gaze.

"Vroche cared for us, he did real good too" Luc squeaks

"Real well, Luc, not real good, but he did, and I should've trusted him, then maybe Pascal would still be here today. Now, let's have some of that food you all got today!" Laurent announces, bringing the conversation back to why he was back here so early. The other boys' faces light up at the mention of the meal. Laurent leads them all into the Elephant, where the food is, I presume. It is now completely dark in Paris and I determine that it's time for me to return from the world that is no longer mine.

Rena is waiting for me, her legs up on her desk.

"How did it go?" Her smile makes it clear she already knows the answer. She has the ability to watch Earth without actually going there physically, as does Rick.

"Was that Éponine's brother?" I ask her instead of answering

"Yes it was, he has her eagerness for learning, does he not?"

"It seems that way. How old is he?" I sigh, rubbing my forehead wearily

"Twelve" So he really _is _Gavroche's age. "Time is different here than it is there. It has only been six months here, while there it's been three years." Rena answers my next question prematurely. I nod, vaguely confused by the concept.

"Do you think he could be the one?" I wonder of Rena's opinion

"That is only for you and the rest of _Les Amis l'ABC _to decide"

"That's maddeningly unhelpful" I tell her, her smile just becomes brighter at this. I roll my eyes and walk out, intending to return as soon as possible to observe Laurent in more depth.

* * *

**What do you guys think about Laurent and his momes? TELL ME IN YOUR REVIEWS :)**


	12. Elucidations and Enlightenment

Chapter 12: Elucidations and Enlightenment  
I woke up in _my _bed for the first time in several weeks. I've been spending most nights with Enjolras. Speaking of my golden curled _amour, _why is he anyhow? Upon not finding him in his room, or any of the boys' rooms, I start down the hallway to Rena's office. He's been spending quite a bit of time there. I run into him half-way there.

"Good morning, Éponine"

"Good morning, _mon cher_, is everything alright? You sound…" I don't know quite how to read all the mixed expressions on my beloved's face. "Weary"

"I just went to Earth" I immediately start to scold him, as he _promised _me he wouldn't! He cuts me off "Let me explain" I close my mouth with a huff and cross my arms over my chest. "I went to Earth to find my replacement, someone to continue the revolution." I nod, remembering him telling me of his plans. "I think I may have found someone, but his is quite young. I could easily tutor him, but that would entail me revealing myself to him."

"You shouldn't do that! What if someone, besides this boy, sees you! Think about your sisters, if they are still in town."

"Ponnie, time is different here. It's been three years since the Barricades there. Last time we came, you remember, it had been about a year." Enjolras takes hold of my hands as I wrap my head around this.

"Who?" I ask suddenly

"What?" Enjolras was too busy rubbing calming circles in my palm with his thumb, he has become distracted.

"Who is this boy? The one you say may be the one to continue your rebellion?" I elaborate.

"His name is Laurent" Enjolras's gaze only confirms my immediate suspicions. He wants my brother to lead a revolution.

"You think he could?"

"I do" After a short pause, Enjolras speaks again "Do _you?"_

"I don't know. I haven't seen him since _Maman _kicked all the boys out. I don't know what he's like" I murmur quietly, mourning the fact I never got to know him while alive.

"He was reading _The Republic _when I found him." Enjolras tells me

"He was? How old is he?" I do the math in my head; he was five when Mama sold him to Magnon, which means he would've been nine when I died, it's been three years so he's…

"Twelve"

"Gav's age" I mutter, this is all so confusing! "I wish I could see him" That thought escapes my lips before I think about its implications. Enjolras meets my eyes. He raises a single brow in suggestion. "I shouldn't"

"If that's what you want" He shrugs

"It's not what I want! It's what I should do! What's right" I argue

"According to Rick"

"He has been running this joint for quite a while" Enjolras doesn't like to talk about Rick. Which I find adorable, because he's jealous! The grinding of his teeth and slight blush on his cheeks tells me this. I can make _La Grand Homme de Marbre _jealous! Enjolras doesn't have anything to combat that, so he remains silent. "You're cute when you're jealous"

"I'm not jealous!" He contradicts immediately.

"Please, you're blushing" I scoff; then kiss his cheek, a smile on my face and turn back around to rouse the young boys.

* * *

"Did you do it, then?" Bahorel demands the moment every one of _Les Amis_ are in the room. I nod. They are all sitting in chairs arranged in a circle; I stand in front of my own chair.

"Well?" Feuilly prompts

"_Mon amis, _I've been to Earth" I start

"You say that as if it's some kind of alien planet!" Granataire interrupts me

"It is unusual for the dead to go into the World of the Living. Rick was not inclined to let me go. Rena convinced him, though."

"So, tell us of your visit, Enjolras" Combeferre gets the conversation back on track.

"I observed the people of Paris for a day, not quite seeing what I wanted, but, at twilight-" I cut off, hearing voices from outside our room.

_"No Zelma! Stop, don't disturb them!" _A voice I recognize to be Éponine's orders her sister.

_"I want to know what they do, holed up in there all the time!" _The younger girl counters. We hear them scuffle, Azelma probably made a grab for the door knob.

_"It's their business, not yours! Let them be!" _We all chuckle, remembering the days when Éponine would be the one listening in on our meetings. The scuffling of the two stops instantly.

_"I think they heard us" _Azelma whispers

_"I haven't heard voices in a while"_ Éponine realizes

"Come in, come in, _les filles!"_ Granataire calls out to them. The door opens slowly and the two hesitant girls appear from behind it. I smile broadly at Éponine. She sighs in relief and comes to stand beside me. Azelma hangs awkwardly by the door.

"Éponine, would you like to introduce your sister?" I break the silence forming.

"Oh – Oh, yes, _Les Amis, _this is Azelma, my little sister"

"Only by two years, Ponnie!" Éponine sticks her tongue out in response.

"Azelma, _Les Amis l'ABC_" Éponine finishes the introductions

"Should I just refer to them as a whole or may I get to know them all as individuals?" She asks of Éponine, sarcasm dripping from her lips.

"Sorry," She responds, not sounding sorry at all "This is Joly, Bossuet, Granataire, Courfeyrac, Jehan, Feuilly, Bahorel, Combeferre and you already know Enjolras." Éponine goes around the circle quickly, naming all the boys in succession. Azelma seems to be trying to repeat all of their names in her head, clearly failing.

"Girls, if you don't mind, I'd like to continue this meeting" Azelma looks around for a chair. Jehan offers his, she takes it graciously. Éponine sits in my chair, as she knows I won't be occupying it. "At twilight I saw a young boy, a _gamin_, sitting and reading."

"A _gamin_, reading?" Bahorel seems to not understand the concept

"Hey!" Éponine and Azelma protest "I'll have you know, Bahorel, I read all. The. Time." Éponine pokes him in the chest with each syllable.

"That's only because you hang out with us!" He argues

"No!" Éponine shouts, even though it is true she only took up reading as a hobby after.

"Just because you're all rich and professionally educated, doesn't mean you're better than us!" Azelma is now harassing Bahorel as well.

"Hey, hey! Girls, calm down, Bahorel, shut up" I take control of the situation. The girls reluctantly take their seats again. "As I said, I saw a young boy reading by the side of the road. And as I was watching, a second boy appeared and called out to the original boy. The second boy seems to look up to the first boy, he reports to him as if he was his leader. They head to the Elephant statue, where two other boys come out of. One is much younger than the other three."

"Where is this going, Enjolras?" Feuilly cuts me off

"You'll see." I then go on the explain the interaction between the four boys, in much further detail than I normally would have if I was simply considering the boy for the position of my replacement. It becomes clear that I've already made my decision, upon seeing the boy once. When I'm finished I confide in the boys that I think he might be the one to replace me.

"Enjolras," Combeferre meets my eyes carefully "I think you need to gather more information on this boy. Find out more of what he's like. See if he's really fit for the job." He has always been my voice of reason. When I first started on the revolution, I was convinced we could win with only ten young men.

"Yes of course, I will do this as soon as possible. And if he doesn't fit, then I will find someone else." All the boys nod. I make a small motion with my hand that all the boys know means they are free to go. Combeferre comes up to talk to me more privately.

"_Mon ami_, what's going on? Do you have some personal connection to the boy? You seem very convinced he is the one, with barely anything to back your claims."

"I don't know, Combeferre" I sigh "I just got this feeling that he would want to and that he _would _beat the oppressive thing that is the French Government."

"Just a feeling?"

"The people are more likely to listen to one of their own than a bunch of _bourgeois _boys." Combeferre nods slowly "He's Éponine's brother" He nods again, as if already having guessed.

* * *

"Hey – Hey, Jehan!" Courfeyrac tries to bring Jehan's attention back.

"Hm?" The ginger refocuses on his friend. Courfeyrac peers over his shoulder, where he sees Éponine talking to his sister, what was her name? Annie… Anna… Ava… Abigail… Azelma!

"Do you _fancy _Éponine's little sister?"

"No, _no_, I just – I think she's rather beautiful, don't you?" Jehan says uncomfortably and for some reason, when he says this, Courfeyrac feels a knot in his chest like a rock.

"Oh God! You're just like Pontmercy! You better not start only ever talking about how perfect that bird is!" Courfeyrac grabs his friend's shoulders and shakes them gently

"I am not like Marius! I'm simply admiring her beauty! You used to do that once upon a time! In the Café, it was always 'Look at that fine lady' or 'Jehan, will you help me woo her?' or 'She's fit, that one'" He reminds Courfeyrac of all his past exploits with women.

"I wasn't daydreaming about them!" Courfeyrac counters

"Never mind, I'm going to go find Joly" Jehan turns and walks from the room. Courfeyrac watches him go with regret. Why does he always mess everything up?

* * *

**Anyone else ship Jehan/Courfeyrac? Just me? Any comments or suggestions should be sent in the form of a review WHICH ARE ALWAYS APPRECIATED! **


	13. Separate Endeavors: Part I

**A/N: I'm sorry sorry for the delay, I was having serious Writer's Block and this chapter is poop, but I hope you enjoy it**

* * *

Chapter 13: Separate Endeavors: Part I

Enjolras has taken Combeferre to observe Laurent; Combeferre is the first, not counting Enjolras and I, to return to Earth. My love decided he needed a true second-opinion on my little brother.

I've taken to simply walking around this place with Azelma. But, today, we have ended up in Granataire's eternity, which he has expanded to include _all _of Le Café Musain, instead of just its wine cellar. We sit in the room where they had planned the rebellion. The mood was somber, but once we all served ourselves several drinks each, the mood lightened. Granataire is telling a story of how he got expelled from the University. It's quite amusing actually; most of the boys, despite hearing this story many times and, for most of them, being a part of it, listen eagerly. I can't focus on his tilting voice though; I'm too busy worrying about Enjolras. Eventually, I can't take my own silence any longer and I slip out of Granataire's eternity.

I wander the corridor, finally daring to enter a room. The room I choose has a black wooden door, with a twisted, wooden knot as its knob. The door creaks when I open it. I peer inside. A beautiful woman sits on the windowsill, gazing out into what appears to be a forest. The woman's long hair falls down her back in luscious, black curls. Her dress is full length and a dark grey.

"Hello" Her voice shakes, is she scared?

"_Bonjour, Je m'appelle _Éponine" I initiate the conversation further.

"You're French? I'm from the United States of America. My name is Aurore" She continues to face away from me.

"_Oui_, nice to meet you, Aurore" Finally, Aurore turns and walks toward me and I get to see her face. She has striking, violet eyes and snowy pale skin. Her features are soft and feminine.

"This isn't the real world, is it?" Her eyes sparkle with innocence.

"No" I say quietly "This is the Afterlife, you're dead, Aurore" I tell her this as gently as possible. Tears well up in her eyes and she covers her mouth with her thin hands.

"But – I – I can't be!" She gasps and stutters. I take her soft hand in mine and squeeze it. "My sister! Oh God, is she okay? Does she know..?" I shake my head to notify her of my ignorance. Aurore sobs pitifully on my shoulder. This never would've happened in the Land of the Living. Nobody would simply break down on top of a stranger. We all have a connection here, a connection of being cut off from the world we have always lived in. Of feeling alone. Except, _I _don't feel alone, because I'm not, I have Gavroche, Azelma, Pascal, all of _Les Amis _and, of course, Enjolras. Nonetheless, I pat the back of this beautiful stranger because I have felt that way before.

* * *

Azelma watches her sister leave the room. She peers around at all the boys; they all know their place, why can't she find hers? She smooths the fabric of her simple dress; she turned down the extravagance because it made her feel even more out of place. It takes her a moment to realize Granataire had stopped talking. The members of _Les Amis l'ABC _have spilt apart into smaller groups. Azelma catches sight of the red-haired man – what was his name? – coming towards her.

"_Bonjour Mademoiselle"_ He bows slightly ever the gentleman.

"_Bonjour Monsieur _Jehan" Azelma is glad she remembered his name in time to address him.

"How do you like it here?"

"Better than the streets" She responds quickly, not sure why he is talking to her. Jehan is not quite sure how to react this.

"I can't imagine" He mutters, he's never had that hard of a life. The petite woman stares defiantly back into his eyes.

"No you can't" Azelma looks past the man in front of her, remembering horrible times.

"_Mademoiselle, _are you okay?" Jehan's voice brings Azelma back; she furiously wipes the tears that had started to drip from her eyes and stands. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine" She mutters, rushing past him.

* * *

"Which one is Laurent?" Combeferre inspects the four boys in front of us. I point to Éponine's dark-haired brother. "I thought as much, he seems to be in charge" We both turn our attention to the _gamin_s.

"Bruno, you and Alain take Place Saint-Michael and Luc and I will go to the Market" Laurent instructs his _mome_s. Bruno groans

"Why do you _always _get the Market?" Alain stares at the back of his blonde's friend's head, willing him to stop speaking. Bruno meets Laurent's eyes defiantly; Luc shrinks at all the tension.

"You know why, don't make me say it" Laurent mutters, making Bruno cross his arms over his chest and motions for Laurent to continue. "I uh – I don't want to go to Place Saint-Michael"

"Why?" I can tell Bruno knows why, he just wants to make Laurent say it.

"It reminds me of the June Rebellion, which makes me think of Gavroche and Pascal" Angry tears are sliding Laurent's cheeks, which he tries to hide by turning away.

"Dammit Bruno!" Alain turns on his fellow _gamin _ "You know he hates talking about his brother! Why do you insist on being a _salaud_ about this?"

"Shut up, Alain, fine Bruno, have your way. Luc and I will go to Place Saint-Michael. Now leave" All of the boys stare at Laurent, not moving. "Go!" Alain and Bruno scurry away. Combeferre glances at me quickly, but I keep my eyes fixed on Laurent. Luc looks like he wants to hug him, but thinks better of it. "C'mon Luc" Laurent mumbles, wiping the tears from his cheeks. Luc follows right behind him, keeping close to his heels.

"Should we follow them?" Combeferre asks me

"If you would like to observe him longer" Combeferre hurries to catch up with the two _gamin_s. They are small and slip through the crowd. "You won't like this, Combeferre, but we can go through people and it's the only way to keep up" Combeferre's face contorts in distaste. I sigh and start to follow the boys once more. After a moment of indecision, Combeferre follows me.

* * *

"_Mademoiselle! _Azelma! I'm sorry!" Jehan shouts after her. He follows her out into the hallway, the stares of all the boys piercing his back. Granataire's bemused glance, Bahorel's eye roll, Joly concerned inspection, and Courfeyrac's jealous glare. Jehan grabs Azelma's wrist. "_Mademoiselle,_ I'm sorry for upsetting you, I promise I did not mean it." _His eyes are so clear and blue, so sincere_ Azelma finds herself thinking.

"Think nothing of it, _Monsieur_." She mumbles weakly. Jehan is bold enough to tip her chin up so he can look in her watery eyes. "_Monsieur"_ She warns, thinking he wants to bed her. She doesn't sell her body, not anymore. But Azelma detects nothing except good intentions in his defined features.

"I'm sorry" He steps back to allow her personal space. They are both flustered and don't know how to proceed.

"_Monsieur-"_ Jehan cuts her off

"Please, call me Jehan"

"_Jehan_, you have nothing to apologize for." Azelma smiles crookedly, thinking flustered Jehan is rather endearing. He smiles in relief.


	14. Separate Endeavors: Part II

Chapter 14: Separate Endeavors: Part II

"Enjolras! Enjolras! Dammit, where did you go?" Combeferre yells out, knowing that only Enjolras _should _be able to hear him. They were following Laurent and Luc, when the _gamin_s took a rather sharp turn, Enjolras shadowed them fluidly, but Combeferre got left behind. He now has no idea where he is or how to get to the Market from here. He never used to go into this district! Combeferre tries to trace their steps, but when he rounds the corner they had, he finds a little square with several streets adjoining from different directions. He picks a random street and walks – er, floats – down it.

After travelling many intersections this way he finds himself on a vaguely familiar street. A door slams and Combeferre spins around to see what has happened. A red-haired woman is crying on her doorstep, her hands covering her face and clothed all in black. Another woman comes out to join her, a friend he presumes, the other woman places her arms around the crying woman.

"Chetta, you _need _to move on. It's only hurting you. Neither Joly nor Lesgle would want you to waste your life mourning! It's been three _years_, Musichetta!" Of course, this is Joly and Lesgle's mistress' street.

"You don't understand, Jeannine! You've never been in love! You've never suffered a loss such as this!" Musichetta's eyes are ringed with red and her cheeks are not quite as full as they used to be.

"Do you see yourself, Musichetta? Do you _hear_ yourself? I'm trying to help you get your life back on track!" Her friend, Jeannine, implores her to see reason. Musichetta sighs, resigned and weary.

"I'm sorry, Jeannine. I wish I could be less sad. I wish I could just whisk away all this sorrow, but it's not that simple! They are _dead_ and I'm – I'm never going to see them again! And it cuts me to the very core that I'll never get to caress Bossuet's bald spot or kiss Joly's soft cheek _ever again_. Joly will never again warn me about some disease. Bossuet will never again bump his head on my doorframe. Do you know how this _feels?"_ Musichetta's cheeks are tracked with tears and she's becoming hysterical.

"No, I don't and I'm not trying to. I'm trying to find my old friend in there. Inside this depressed, grieving _mess_ I know that she still resides. Please let her free." Jeannine grasps her friend's hand in a last hope to bring her around. Musichetta turns away, but keeps hold on that hand. Combeferre feels as if he's intruding on an incredibly personal situation. So, recalling when he last retrieved Joly from Musichetta's flat, hurries off in the direction of the Market.

* * *

After Aurore had stopped crying, I left and ended up in the White Room.

"How are things?" Rick asks me casually, he's been rather busy of late and we haven't talked in a while.

"Azelma seems to be not settling in very well. She doesn't know her place with us. She knew her place in our family, if you could call it that, but not here, not with the boys." I admit sadly

"What about you?"

"I met a woman today, while exploring, her name's Aurore. She's very beautiful, but became distraught when I told her she was dead." Rick nods knowingly

"I know of the woman you speak. Before seeing her again, I would first pay her twin sister a visit. Her name is Lila and you might learn a thing or two about Aurore from her. I'll lead you to her door." Rick stands and begins to leave the room. I follow suite a bit confused, why do I need to know more about Aurore before going back to visit her?

The door Rick stops in front of is old and the paint is peeling, the brass of the knob is tarnished.

"You're welcome, Éponine" He disappears before I can ask him why I should thank him. Cautiously, I open the door and peer around the room. A young woman sits on a small bed, clearly made for a child. Her dark brown hair is in a messy plait. Lila is tanner than Aurore, her features sharper and her eyes are not violet, but hazel. She wears a plain, navy dress.

"Who are you? Why are you in here?" She looks up at me in immediate suspicion.

"I'm Éponine and I'm here for information on your sister, Aurore." Pain seems to seize Lila's body at the mention of her sister.

"Why?" Her whisper is hoarse

"I've been told I'll need it before I tried interacting with her again."

"Fine. Sit. I'm Lila, by the way" Lila motions to the wooden chair next to the bed. It is uncomfortably worn, but I don't complain, I've had to _sleep_ on worse before. "Aurore, my lovely twin. She was always the _better_ twin, always more loved, more admired, more beautiful, more talented. But I didn't mind, I liked being in the background, plus I believed my sister _deserved_ the attention more than I did. I grew up as her shadow. Our family wasn't rich or anything. We lived on a farm in Massachusetts."

"When we were older, we moved to a small town near the farm. She became the governess of a family and I, their maid. I did most of the caring for the children, but she got all the credit. Then, terrible things started to happen. They started off mostly harmless; Girls sleep-walking out of the house, claiming to have been possessed; Boys biting their brothers 'til they bleed, their eyes glazed over. But then, things got more serious. People started dying. Killed or mangled in mercilessly vicious ways. The town-folk thought it was witchcraft, the work of the Devil. I was the first to be accused. They hung all of my "accomplices" and burned me at the stake." Lila shudders here, as if picturing the flames licking her flesh.

"While I was burning, Aurore comes up to me and whispers, only loud enough so I can hear, that she was the one. The one who had caused all the deaths, the one who suggested I was guilty. She was smiling, no, she was smirking. Then she laughed, the sound I had once found comforting, now sounded cold and cruel. My own sister offered me up to the town's people. She sold me to save her skin. I no longer associate the girl who held me when our cat died and that evil woman together; even though I know they are the same person." I stare; Lila's wretched story derails me.

"I'm so sorry, Lila. Aurore seemed so fragile and sincere when I met her." I murmur, making Lila laugh, an empty, detached sound

"Yes, she likes deceiving people. I wouldn't go back there." I pat her shoulder, she tenses at my touch.

"Thank you, Lila, for warning me."

"I never want her to use someone ever again. I won't let it happen if I can help it." The melancholy I had seen in her eyes before has now turned to cold, hard determination.

"I'm sure you will."

* * *

I didn't take note of Combeferre's absence until we reached the Market. By then it was too late to determine when he had been left behind. Laurent is running around and stealing from various stalls, while Luc sits as a beggar.

"_Mesdemoiselles_, please, I haven't had anything to eat in days! Could you spare me a sou?" Luc begs two wealthy looking women. The women turn to him and their faces come out of the shadows. It's Corinne. It's always Corinne. She's with her friend, one I recognize from her childhood, Sylvie. Sylvie is a bit aloof, but is a good kid at heart. She has thin, blonde hair and warm, brown eyes.

"Of course I can _garcon_" My sister smiles sweetly at Luc and hands him ten francs.

"Th- Thank you, _Mademoiselle!_" She laughs, a sound so close to that of our mother's I gasp, trying to repress the sudden wave of memories.

"You're quite welcome" Sylvie smiles and pats the small _gamine_'s head.

"_Au revoir, garcon_" Corinne pinches Luc's cheek in goodbye.

"_Au revoir, Mesdemoiselles!"_ Luc inspects his new money in disbelief.

"Why did you give that _gamin_ so much money? He only asked for a sou!" I hear Sylvie ask Corinne. I make a spilt-second decision and follow my sister. Besides, Luc isn't going anywhere until later in the day.

"He reminded me of a young boy who used to hang around my brother and his friends." Her voice sounds detached. Sylvie pats her shoulder awkwardly. "You believe me, don't you, Sylvie?"

"I do" Sylvie struggles with the smile on her face "You wouldn't lie about that"

"Oh God, Sylvie, you think I'm insane! Just as _Papa_ does! Just as he's convincing Élodie! No, dammit, he can't steal everyone from me like this!" Corinne has tears welling up in her eyes.

"No! I do believe you, Corinne! Your father is being ridiculous! You're not crazy!" Sylvie tries to convince her friend of her faith.

"Don't _lie_! It only makes it worse, so much worse" Tears stream freely down Corinne's cheeks and she begins to run. Sylvie tries to follow her, but has no practice in running in dresses as Corinne has. Seeing my sister so broken… I don't know what to do. I want to help, but I know I will only make it worse. I sigh and head back to the Market.


End file.
